Malaysia Property Incorporated ceases operations

KUALA LUMPUR : The government has decided to cease the operations of Malaysia Property Incorporated (MPI) as the company has managed Malaysia's property overhang issue and successfully branded its real estate sector overseas.

 

According to a statement by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) at the Prime Minister's Department today, MPI is a non-profit company set up in 2008 to achieve the two aforementioned objectives.

 

The company had been given a launching grant by the government to support activities to promote property sales to locals and foreigners. Several leading local real estate developers have also contributed funds to support MPI's promotional activities, it said.

 

“MPI worked closely with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in promoting Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme as well as investment promotion agencies such as the Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Invest KL in attracting foreign investors to establish their presence in Kuala Lumpur,” it said.

 

The EPU said that MPI successfully contributed to the reduction in property overhang in Malaysia. The overhang in residential property was reduced by 55% from 26,300 units in 2008 to 11,816 units by 2014.

 

Over the same period, property sales to foreigners in both the primary and secondary markets hit RM3.4bil, it added.

 

Although the value of properties bought by foreigners almost doubled since 2008, the share of ownership by foreigners in 2014 remained at 4.1% from the total properties purchased in the country, it said.

 

“With the property overhang issue largely under control, the government considers it timely to close MPI effective March 31, 2016 as Malaysian property developers are now more prepared and capable of promoting and marketing their projects both locally and abroad on their own,” it said.