JPPH aims to introduce rental data by October this year

PUTRAJAYA: The Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) aims to provide rental data on a subscription basis by October this year, said director general Datuk Faizan Abdul Rahman (pictured).

The department aims to provide rental data for all kinds of properties – starting with the Klang Valley – which the market “is in dire need of”, he told TheEdgeProperty.com in an interview.

“Rental yield is the rental amount divided by capital value. Without the rental amount, we cannot produce rental yield for investors. With this rental data, we will give a fair valuation of the rental value from our side,” he said.

JPPH had initially aimed to roll out the data by 3Q2015, covering Johor, Penang and Selangor. However, it faced problems with the quality of the data it received.

The department’s source of rental data are stamped tenancy agreements from the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN). The agreements are supposed to be filled up by the property owners – through the PDS 49(A) form, either manually or online via the Stamp Assessment and Payment System (STAMPS).

However, the manual forms were only recently updated to include the information that JPPH needs to capture, while JPPH and LHDN are updating STAMPS.

On the other hand, the forms are sometimes incorrectly filled. Owners may be reluctant to disclose certain information, or third parties such as clerks and runners who are employed to fill up these forms do not have enough information on the property.

The information that JPPH needs differs according to property type. “For a 2-storey terraced house, we need basic information such as how much is the rental and the address of the house. We don’t need the built-up of the house or the land size.”

However, for properties such as retail lots, JPPH needs to capture information such as the size and level of the lots, due to the large variance between such properties.

JPPH is now working on getting the basic data for retail lots out, before it addresses alternative rental agreements such as profit-sharing models.

Faizan said the government is also working on a number of issues related to the issuance of vacant possession (VP) and strata titles to speed up transactions and, consequently, the output of data.

“In Malaysia, the strata title is not issued upon VP. So a transaction that was performed 10 years ago may only be issued the strata title today,” said Faizan.

As no stamp duty is charged until the strata title is issued for primary sales from developers, this causes delays in JPPH collecting data from LHDN.

“With the new Strata Management Act implemented by the Housing Ministry that came into operation in June last year, we hope that eventually the stamp duty would not be based on the title [such as in Singapore], but on the agreement instead. Especially in an active market, we are behind time,” said Faizan.

Sometimes, even the value of your home can be a mystery. Go to The Edge Reference Price to find out.

This story first appeared in TheEdgeProperty.com pullout on April 22, 2016, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily every Friday. Download TheEdgeProperty.com here for free.

IRERS brings academics and industry players together

ONE of the biggest events on The National Institute of Valuation’s (INSPEN) calendar is undoubtedly The International Real Estate Research Symposium 2016 (IRERS), a biennial event that aims to gather real estate researchers from around the world to share their latest research with each other and professionals in the real estate industry.

Into its eighth edition, the symposium themed “Leading the Way: Innovation in Real Estate” will be held at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur from April 26 to 28.

Topics include valuation and pricing; real estate development and management; real estate market analysis and investment; industry cycles; land use planning; intellectual properties; and ICT in real estate.

Meanwhile, researchers – including recipients of the National Real Estate Research Fund – can disseminate their findings there. There will also be three plenary sessions, where about 80 papers are expected to be presented in three parallel sessions.

The symposium is being held in collaboration with the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM); University of Western Sydney, Australia; University of Ulster, UK; Queensland University of Technology, Australia; and University of Reading, Malaysia. TheEdgeProperty.com is the media partner.