Efforts to draw more foreign investors to property sector

Posted on | September 18, 2007

By THE STAR

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is serious in its efforts and will do what it takes to lure more foreign investors to the property sector.

“We can create policies but it takes joint efforts from the public and private sectors to make these plans go past the drawing board stage,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Sri Effendi Norwawi said during the 2007 National Property and Housing Summit yesterday.

He said the Government was working closely with the real estate developers and International Real Estate Federation to strategise and expedite ways of making Malaysia a preferred property investment destination.

“We are not resting on our laurels; our delivery system needs to be improved. Our developers need to be more responsible and conscious in delivering high quality real estate that is better if not equivalent to international standards,” said Effendi.

“Developers need to aggressively market themselves in and out of the country to capture the global real estate market,” he added.

Malaysia should constantly improve to position itself as an attractive global player, he said.

Vietnam had proven itself to be a global player when it was chosen as part of Dubai World’s (the business and investment holding arm of the Dubai Government) international ventures amounting to more than US$30bil, amongst other more developed countries such as US, Europe, India and Saudi Arabia, he added.

“We want to remove whatever remnants left of the negative perception from the 1997 downturn. Despite the removal of the restrictions imposed during the crisis period, there is still a bit of nagging perception among international property investors of controls on foreign ownership,” said Effendi.

Measures that are being taken to revitalise the property sector include the liberalisation of foreign exchange controls, no restrictions on the number of properties that foreigners can buy, and a longer duration of stay for foreigners through Malaysia My Second Home programme.

Other initiatives in the pipeline include dissemination of information through exhibitions and seminars, establishment of certain benchmarks and enhancing property transactions through one-stop centres.

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