Revive first-home financing scheme, govt urged

The government is being urged to reintroduce the MyDeposit first-home financing scheme in the 2027 budget, according to the Centre for the Advancement of Community and Housing. The program, introduced in 2016, provided assistance up to 10% of a property's price or RM30,000, whichever was less, to help first-time buyers with their downpayments.

However, the scheme stopped offering assistance in 2021. MyDeposit's chief coordinator, Iskandar Abdul Samad, explained that a 10% deposit for a RM300,000 home could be a significant sum for families to save, as it would be around RM30,000. This sum could take households a long time to save for, even if they have steady incomes and can manage monthly housing loan repayments.

Iskandar suggested a revolving fund model for a revived MyDeposit, where the government would advance part or all of the deposit required, and recipients would repay the assistance through interest-free instalments after moving into their homes. This repayment would then be used to assist other first-time buyers, ensuring the government allocation isn't exhausted after helping one recipient.

The scheme could target low- and middle-income first-time homebuyers, focusing on affordable homes. So far, 3,106 first-time housebuyers have benefited from MyDeposit, with RM86.386 million disbursed. The housing and local government ministry had previously proposed a similar initiative, Deposit Madani, but it did not receive an allocation in the 2025 budget.