{
  "id": 11846766,
  "title": "Revive first-home financing scheme, govt urged",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/04/revive-first-home-financing-scheme-govt-urged-11846766",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-04T04:13:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2026/10/04/revive-first-home-financing-scheme-govt-urged"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.",
  "summary": "NGO says many young housebuyers can afford monthly loan repayments but struggle to raise the upfront deposit.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Revive first-home financing scheme, govt urged",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/04/revive-first-home-financing-scheme-govt-urged",
        "published": "2026-10-04T04:13:49.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}