LANGKAWI: No automatic citizenship will be given to foreigners purchasing properties in Malaysia. Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad assured that the move to allow foreigners to buy condominiums and apartment units was due to a huge property overhang nationwide at the moment.

He explained that not only was the huge property overhang proving to be financial loss to the sector, the government was also forced to make a decision in allowing such properties to be sold at a lower price.

“Locals can also now purchase it at such a price, as we have allowed the construction of such properties (condominiums and apartments) and now it cannot be sold, resulting in the nation facing losses.

“We want to sell the properties, and after selling the properties (overhang), we can revert to the ceiling price back to RM800,000 or RM1million. In this way we will be able to sell the excess (property) well,” he said at a press conference at the Langkawi Development Authority office here today.

Dr Mahathir who is the Langkawi member of Parliament earlier attended the Langkawi District Action Council meeting, where he was briefed on the developments taking place on the island.

The Prime Minister reiterated that the properties purchased by foreigners could only be used as a holiday home and would not see them being given Malaysian citizenship.

In tabling the 2020Budget last Friday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that price threshold of the sale of condominiums and apartment units to foreigners was reduced to RM600,000 from the previous ceiling of RM1 million.

The Finance Minister said this was to reduce the supply overhang of condominiums and apartments, which in the second quarter of 2019 had amounted to RM8.3 billion in value.

However, many quarters had asked the government to review the proposal for fear that developers will tend to build more properties specifically to be sold to foreigners.