Working in KL, renting a place and wanting to buy your first property? Assuming you have just found a place to buy. What’s next? Let’s not debate on why first-time home buyers are not able to get loans. The applicants would blame the banks for not lending but the banks would say if the buyers qualify why would we not lend? Well, I am on the side of the bank, they MUST lend responsibly. Else, we may fall into a mortgage crisis like the one which happened in the largest economy in the world in 2008. Okay, now for the good news. Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) Deputy Chief Executive of Retail Banking Frederick Siew revealed that they have a RM6 billion allocation under the Youth Housing Scheme (YHS) which is STILL Available for applications. He shared that from its launch in July 2015 till currently, they have received 4,000 applications of which approval rate was around 50 percent. (NOT BAD!!)
What’s this scheme all about? Well, it is supposed to help up to 20,000 first-home buyers. Target wise, they are looking at couples from the ages 25 to 40 and the combined family income should be lower than RM10,000. Under the scheme, BSN may approve a full loan and all successful applicants would also get an additional funding of up to 5 percent for MRTA or MRTT. The home loans are for properties ranging from RM100,000 to RM500,000. (Yes, still under the affordable category) Beyond just the loan, all buyers are eligible for an extra RM200 per month for the first 2 years. Frederick also shared that earlier, this scheme was not really known and it is now more visible because BSN has started trying up with developers of affordable homes.
It was not stated if the loan allocation was only for Greater KL, thus I assume this is open to applicants from all over Malaysia. I think it’s also important to note that some buyers would have their own favourite bank and I think this is also one reason why BSN may not be getting the traction they need thus far. Perhaps they should have engaged more blogs to share about their YHS. Haha. Anyway, jokes aside. Should you need a loan for your first affordable home, this is another choice for you. Personally, I have only been using the top 3 banks in Malaysia by size (Maybank, CIMB and Public Bank) for loans and that was because those were the banks which tied up with the projects that I was buying. My only preference would be a competitive rate and convenience of payment. Happy applying!
written on 16 Nov 2016
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