KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — All banks will be required to co-operate with government-owned credit guarantee company, Syarikat Jaminan Kredit Perumahan Berhad (SJKP), under the National Housing Policy 2018-2025 (NHP), to allow greater access to affordable home loans for low income earners.

At the moment, only four banks have linked with the Finance Ministry-owned company, which will play a key role in getting banks to ease lending for homebuyers.

The programme will be opened to low-, low-medium cost medium-cost homes, said the NHP report, unveiled by Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin yesterday.

SJKP was initially set up to provide housing loan guarantees worth RM200 million annually for Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB) homes.

Under the NHP, the credit service will be opened to both private and state-built houses.

The government outlined five core drivers under the national housing plan to make homes more accessible for the bottom and middle income earners, most of whom cannot afford houses sold in the open market, which in the Klang Valley averages at RM450,000 and upwards.

Property price tags in the major urban areas have more than quadrupled since 2008, owing to rabid speculation, low supply and high demand.

The problem prompted the current NHP to be conceived.

Under the plan’s first core driver, private developers will work with the public sector to address the shortage and supply low -ost and affordable homes.

State agencies, with federal assistance, will lead the charge to build them.

The plan also identified alternative solutions. The management of existing public housing will be revamped through more stringent regulations.

Prices and rents will be regulated while the newly set up central housing database will keep public homes out of speculators’ reach.

Putrajaya is also working to make financing easier, although details of how they plan to go about it are scant.

Developers and buyers have complained tough lending requirements are the chief cause behind the property market slow down.

Despite the allegation, Bank Negara said last October that the total outstanding housing loans in the banking system grew by 8.3 per cent as at end of June 2018 and the approval rate for house buyers remained strong at about 72.1 per cent.