Envisioning Greater Homeownership With Bank Negara Fund

Bank Negara is opening up a RM1 billion fund for affordable housing to a wider group of Malaysian home buyers. From Sept 1 onwards, the scheme will be opened to local buyers with a maximum monthly household income of up to RM4,360. Previously, the eligibility was capped at household earnings of less than RM2,300 a month. Buyers can also afford to use the scheme to purchase houses of up to RM300,000 per unit. This is effectively double that the previous limit of RM150,000. Participating financial institutions under this scheme include AmBank (M) Bhd, CIMB Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd, MALAYAN BANKING BHD and Bank Simpanan Nasional. The trust fund was first introduced on Jan 1 to assist first-time home buyers, especially those in the lower-income bracket as well as those residing within smaller cities to obtain adequate property financing. The fund will be opened for two years from Jan 2, 2019 onwards. The revolutionary scheme would help house buyers reduce their monthly mortgage instalments by as much as 23% compared to existing commercial banking loans.