Thursday 1 July 2021

Abolish NEP might be way forward to boost GBI coverage percentage in Malaysia

In Singapore , GreenMark is compulsory for certain development and the government aim to achieve 80% in 2030 which the government aggressively push forward. 
Although I do not think Malaysia should follow the same but Malaysian in general is far less conscious about matter concerning environment and climate change which make it harder to justify the cost outlay for green building. GBI is so far the most successful tools in Malaysia yet in terms of percentage it is not more than 3% of total real estate market.

You may find out from NAPIC about the percentage and how many property is overhanging. Remember , the greenest building is not to build but because of 30% bumiputra reserve that caused over 50% unsold unit in property overhang. Developer is paying the price. Another 7.5% penalty is apply for property in Johore to convert from bumiputra unit to non-bumiputra unit. It is a bet on percentage and this cost alone can use to elevate the GBI rating to gold and platinum rating and significantly reduce the operation cost of the property in future. 



The minimum bumiputra discount ranging from 5% to 15% for bumiputra various from state to state within Malaya, across different type of property (e.g. housing, commercial &industrial) can be interpreted as extra cost non-bumi have to pay if deem the price bumiputra property as 100% then what non-bumi have to pay is extra. This cost will snowballing in bank loan when included the interest pay for the extra cost. The rules of thumb is about double of the bumi discount rate. Example, in Johore, minimum discount for bumi is 15% then it is about 31% extra non-bumi have to pay, at the end of the loan repayment. This cost could have been use to upgrade GBI rating. 


I believe if Malaysia abolish NEP and introduce green initiative to boost GBI taking up rate then not only Malaysia can achieve greater percentage in GBI coverage but also racial harmony and the equality principle in democracy. 

On another hand, I do see Malaysia need to have more selective and targeted electricity and water tariff to make basic infrastructure affordable for all yet not so cheap to be ignore and abuse by many. 

I've earlier on wrote to Yeo (the previous climates change minister) about making BEI and historical data available on electric bill in order to more properly strategize electricity consumption reduction, reduce reserve margin and reduce electricity thief.