KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — The full guidelines on the peer-to-peer (P2P) financing framework for property ownership will be announced in the next one to two weeks, said Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad.

He said the government was committed to opening up house ownership for Malaysians by looking at ways to ease financing needs.  

"Anything that is new is bound to have details that need to be ironed out. At the moment, we have not quite worked out the full mechanism yet.

“Give it one or two more weeks, we will come out with the full guidelines giving the criteria on how people are going to qualify for it,” he told reporters on the sidelines of LEAP Summit 2018 here today.

According to reports, the House Buyers Association (HBA) recently criticised the move, saying that the real problem was the high house prices and not financing options.

HBA expressed concern on growing property speculation, property scams and bad debts, saying the government would be providing buyers with a weak credit score access to “easy credits” with the P2P scheme.

The association also pointed out that the government was unclear as to whether the crowdfunding initiative, announced during the tabling of the 2019 Budget last week, was for properties that were under construction or completed units.

Raja Kamarul Bahrin said the P2P scheme was a method that the government was willing to consider to boost house ownership.

“We appreciate the concern because anything that is new is bound to come under a lot of scrutiny and apprehension. It is what we are willing to venture into to open up house ownership to those in need.

“Even for the conventional loan scheme, banks are normally very conservative, especially when the economy is not as good as it used to be. But at least we are beginning to get banks to be more open. They are willing to accept applicants with second jobs with approved employment and earnings,” he added.

Meanwhile, Raja Kamarul Bahrin said the ministry was looking at four cities to be transformed into smart cities, namely Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Johor Baru and Kota Kinabalu.

He noted that the smart city initiative was pursued by governments globally to create a sustainable model for cities and preserve the quality of life for their citizens.

“Once we have established the outline of what targets we should be achieving, we will expand to other cities in the peninsula and east Malaysia,” he said. — Bernama