KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 90,779 housing loan applications worth RM21.5 billion have been approved under the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme (SJKP) to support home ownership among the B40 and M40 income groups.
Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu revealed that a significant 89.56% of these approved applications involved young Malaysians aged 40 and below.
She detailed that this includes approximately 15,000 borrowers aged between 18 and 25 and about 31,000 borrowers aged 26 to 30.
A further 22,356 borrowers were aged 31 to 35 while 12,799 borrowers were aged 36 to 40.
The deputy minister provided this information in reply to a question from Azli Yusof regarding government initiatives to help individuals without fixed income, such as gig workers, to own homes.
Aiman Athirah noted that under the recently tabled Budget 2026, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced an expansion of the SJKP scheme with an additional RM20 billion in guarantees.
She added that this is good news for the people, especially once the budget receives parliamentary approval.
In his budget speech, Anwar announced that the SJKP scheme would be expanded to offer guarantees for another 80,000 first-time homebuyers.
The overall guarantee ceiling will be raised from RM10 billion to RM20 billion, a move expected to benefit more gig workers and self-employed individuals.
Separately, Aiman said the government is also implementing several other initiatives to assist low-income earners in owning homes.
These include rent-to-own schemes under the People’s Housing Project (PPR) and the People’s Residency Programme (PRR), both overseen by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. – Bernama