KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — A total of 26,286 completed residential units valued at RM18.3 billion were unsold in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Local Government Development Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said this was based on preliminary data for Q2 this year released by the National Property Information Centre.

He said that the number showed a drop of 5.3 per cent in terms of the number of units and a 0.6 per cent decrease in terms of value compared to the same period last year.

"To ensure the issue of unsold properties can be controlled, the government is implementing a number of measures, including the Affordable Housing (Rumah Mampu Milik) index mapping based on the median income by state and district obtained from the Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2022.

"This method takes into account the median income of the people by locality based on the median multiple approach. This mapping also serves as a guide for developers and housing agencies to set the sale price of houses in each locality,” he said

He said this in reply to a question from Datuk Suhaimi Nasir (BN-Libaran) in the Dewan Rakyat, who wanted to know the efforts made by the ministry to address the issue of unsold properties.

In addition, Akmal Nasrullah said the Local Government Development Ministry (KPKT) encouraged developers to conduct a feasibility study to ensure that houses are built based on people’s affordability and to prevent any unsold properties.

According to him, the KPKT is in the midst of developing the Housing Big Data Analytics System as a centralised reference source for housing data.

In the meantime, Akmal Nasrullah said the ministry is committed to promoting home financing through the iBiaya initiative under the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme (SJKP).

He said that throughout the implementation of SJKP from 2008 until September 30 this year, 30,841 loan applications worth RM5.85 billion had been approved.

"Also, the government, through Budget 2024, has proposed to add another RM10 billion in guarantees to benefit 40,000 borrowers,” he said. — Bernama