LBS Bina asks BNM to relax housing loan rules

KUALA LUMPUR: LBS Bina Group Bhd, which saw a 45% cancellation in sales this year, hopes that the central bank will consider relaxing the lending guidelines for house buyers, said its group managing director Tan Sri Lim Hock San.
“As a developer, we want Bank Negara Malaysia to look into the lending requirements for purchasers. The end financing rules are very stringent and as a result, many people cannot afford. They want to buy a house but cannot, due to conditions. We want the government to reconsider the requirements and relax the lending rules,” he told reporters at its AGM today.
Lim said the cancellation comprises mainly first time buyers, who could not secure loans.
Despite the 45% cancellation, the group managed to rake in sales of RM723 million so far this year, since January. The sales performance is a 62% improvement from the RM443 million sold during the same period last year.
“From January to date, we achieved sales of RM723 million. This is net sales. Actually, we sold more than RM1.3 billion but there was 45% cancellation,” said Lim. Its unbilled sales stood at RM1.54 billion as at end-April.
He said it remains confident of achieving its RM1.8 billion sales target, driven by its 18 ongoing projects with combined gross development value (GDV) of RM3.95 billion and two new launches with total GDV of close to RM1 billion.
Next month, the group will launch Phase 2 of Alam Perdana, comprising 884 units with a GDV of RM470 million while Phase 1 of Cybersouth in Dengkil, with a GDV of RM488 million, will be launched in September.
On the mutual termination of the agreement with NWP Holdings for its projects in Zhuhai, China, Lim said there were certain conditions that both parties could not agree on, which he declined to disclose.
Meanwhile, Lim does not foresee any impact from the cancellation of rail projects as it does not have housing developments near the stations.
“I personally feel that it is a good move, because of cost cutting. In addition, there is the abolition of GST (Goods and Services Tax), to be replaced with SST (Sales and Services Tax). The ultimate aim of the government is to enable the people to have money to spend.
“With this, they can save some money and buy house. In the long run, it is good for the country and it would plug a lot of the loopholes in government spending,” he added.
Lim hopes that the prices of construction materials would decline with the removal of GST and developers may consider reducing their selling prices. He said the group is looking into it.
Commenting on the new government’s plan to streamline affordable housing initiatives, Lim said it is a good move to standardise the initiatives as it would provide clear direction for developers.
He said the group is also planning to contribute to Tabung Harapan. Property developers who have contributed to the fund include Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd and Ewein Bhd, who contributed RM3 million and RM1 million respectively.
LBS Bina’s share price rose 4.12% or 3.5 sen to close at 88.5 sen today with 2.15 million shares traded.