The Malaysian government has been urged to curb home price speculation to protect the low- and medium-income group, with some of them having saved up for years to buy a home.
Teng Boon Soon, a member of Parliament, said the government should let healthy market mechanisms determine the price fluctuations to ensure the low- and medium-income group is able to purchase homes without facing more problems.
“Although house price speculation has been in existence for quite sometime, it is becoming more rampant lately especially for newly completed houses,” he said during the 2011 Budget debate. “For instance, a RM1 million house is bought and then promptly sold at RM1.2 million.”
He added that the same situation happened in the medium-cost housing sector, leaving those households earning RM3,000 per month wondering why they could not afford to buy a home. “These speculators are after profits in a hit-and-run manner. If there is no control, it will put the low and medium-income group at a disadvantage.”