Now is arguably the best time to buy a new home in the last five to 10 years with the stagnant house price growth, early signs of property sector recovering and most importantly, the hefty discounts and incentives offer by the government and developers during the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC).

Source: Napic

The Malaysian House Price Index (shown above) is growing at the slowest pace in years with the fourth quarter of 2019 recording an 1.8% growth. In 2020, the trend is expected to continue and even possibly to record a drop due to the economic impact from COVID-19. But as observed in the past, the property market is capable of recovering in a short period of time due to its resilience.

This is evident by the strong rebound after the 2008/09 financial crisis where the Malaysian House Price Index picked up in 2010 and registered double-digit growth from 4Q2011 to 2Q2014 (except for 9.4% in 4Q2013) before gradually slowing down in the subsequent quarters.

Hence, there is probably no better time than now to buy a home to position yourself on the next uptrend in the market, especially a new one in the primary market where you can enjoy hefty discounts and incentives from the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC).

The HOC was launched in January 2019 and ended on 31 December on the same year but it is reintroduced in June 2020 and will run until 31 May 2021.

For those who missed the opportunity to buy during the HOC in 2019, this offers a second chance of getting their ideal home at a minimum 10% discount and exemption on taxes.

But just how much cost one could save if he/she buy during the current HOC? Let’s have a look:

Let’s say you are buying a home that is selling at RM500,000, you can now get it at RM450,000 due to the 10% discount given by the developer and save more than RM10,000 on the stamp duties!

For a RM450,000 home, buyer will have to fork out RM8,000 and RM2,025 for the stamp duty on Memorandum of Transfer (MOT) and loan agreement. You can even save on the legal fees that would amount to RM12,050 for preparing the MOT and loan agreement with the developer taking care of the cost. All in all, your cost saving is RM72,075 for the purchase of a new home that is originally selling at RM500,000. And this is on top of many attractive deals that are being offered by developers, including special rebates, move-in deals and home furnishing package.

But take note that all these discounts and exemptions during HOC is only for “residential properties”, which defined as houses, condominium units, apartments and flats including service apartments and SOHO (built and used as dwelling), according to Real Estate & Housing Developers' Association Malaysia.

And bear in mind that the HOC only runs until end-May 2021 and given the fact that the last time that the campaign was held is during 1998 to 1999, one would probably have to wait for another decade to see such a rare buying opportunity arises again.