The Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (Rehda) said the proposal by the government to issue moneylending licences to developers is positive.

President Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor said it must be viewed positively as it intended to assist developers who had voiced out the difficulty of potential buyers to obtain a percentage of the loan they wanted.

"But not all developers can afford to do this. I think only the middle to bigger ones can afford to do this.

"Certainly we will look at it. Rehda will discuss among our members and definitely we want some mechanism, because we do not want this scheme to ignite speculative elements," said Iskandar, who is also Glomac Bhd group managing director/chief executive officer (CEO).

He told reporters this on the sidelines of the 19th National Housing and Property Summit in Petaling Jaya today.

Organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, the two-day summit ending tomorrow is a premier annual event, bringing together key stakeholders in the housing and property sector.

Earlier, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister, Noh Omar, in his keynote address before launching the summit, said the ministry was mulling a proposal for housing developers to be issued a moneylending licence to help non-bankable house buyers and overcome down payment issues.

Meanwhile, Rehda patron/former president Jeffrey Ng said currently to help prospective buyers who face difficulty in securing loans from banks, some developers are already charging about two to three percentage points higher than what the banks are prepared to offer.

Developers with a moneylending licence generally would charge a higher interest rate compared to what the banks are prepared to lend, said Ng, who is Sunway REIT Management Sdn Bhd's CEO.

"If the banks today lend about 4.5 percent, they (some developers) are talking about offering 6.5 percent to 7.0 percent, or around that. I'm also surprised they are already doing it.

"It could involve two different entities within the same group, that is, another company within a developer's group that has a moneylending licence that lends to the developer's side," he added.

- Bernama