HBA gives up on 2027 Budget wishlist after years of being overlooked

KUALA LUMPUR: The National House Buyers Association (HBA) has broken with its annual tradition of submitting a wishlist for the national budget, saying repeated calls for stronger homebuyer protection and tougher enforcement have failed to receive sufficient attention.

After years of submitting wishlists and recommendations to successive budgets, HBA honorary secretary-general Datuk Chang Kim Loong said it is throwing in the towel for the 2027 Budget.

The reason? Chang said HBA is tired of repeating the same calls for stronger homebuyer protection, tougher enforcement, greater housing affordability and action against sick and abandoned housing projects, without seeing what it considers meaningful results.

"We have made our recommendations. We have highlighted the problems. We have proposed practical solutions to protect homebuyers, improve housing affordability and, most importantly, prevent the recurrence of sick and abandoned housing projects.

"But for the 2027 Budget, HBA has decided to do something different. We are giving up our wishlist. Not because there are no problems to solve. Not because HBA has run out of ideas. And certainly not because homebuyers no longer need protection.

"We have simply come to the conclusion that repeatedly submitting the same aspirations, recommendations and proposals, only to see them seemingly overlooked or given little meaningful consideration, is becoming a sheer waste of time and effort," Chang said in a statement.

Chang said the association had become frustrated by repeatedly putting forward the same proposals only to see them seemingly overlooked or given little meaningful consideration.

He said HBA believed the government should focus on the fundamentals, that is, protecting homebuyers, preventing abandoned housing projects, enforcing existing laws effectively and improving housing affordability.

"The minister got his priorities wrong from our perspective," he said.

He also questioned the focus on introducing new legislation and regulatory frameworks when, in HBA's view, existing laws and enforcement mechanisms have yet to fully address longstanding problems faced by homebuyers.

HBA's position, Chang said, could be summed up simply: fix what is broken before creating something new.

"There is little point in producing another beautifully prepared wishlist if the people who are supposed to act on it are not listening," he said.

For the 2027 Budget, HBA's message is therefore blunt: nothing to wish for (but) just listen to what homebuyers have been saying for years.

"Less rhetoric, fewer new layers, more effective and serious implementation and enforcement of the existing laws," Chang said.