Automatic Moratorium on All Loans, Principal and Interest for Six Months
According to analysts, Bank Negara Malaysia’s directive for banks to offer automatic moratorium to individual and SME borrowers is meant to cushion short-term stresses on the banking system.
The automatic moratorium should be applied to all loans, principal and interest (except credit card balances) for six months until September this year. Lending requirements to the property sector, share financing and unit trusts have been immediately uplifted.
Source: New Straits Times
COVID-19’s Impact on Property Developers
Property sales galleries remain closed and construction works have halted until the extended Movement Control Order (MCO) ends on 14 April 2020. Although Bank Negara’s six-month loan deferment package is helping to ease the situation, developers still need to bear operational costs such as salaries.
According to RHB Research Institute senior analyst Loong Kok Wen, it is difficult to make equity calls or secure new bank loans now, thus, smaller developers with poor performance risk winding-up. She added, “Although there is currently very little demand in properties, with some demand suppressed now, it might result in pent-up sales upon recovery of the market.”
Source: Edgeprop Malaysia
