The third annual Klang Valley Malaysian Property Expo (Mapex) 2007 opens its doors to the house buyers market today at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre.

To run through the weekend, developers such as Mah Sing Group Bhd, IJM Propertie Sdn Bhd and Sunway City Bhd are some of the well-known names showcasing their properties at the event.

Officiated by Minister of Women Family and Community Development Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the property exhibition features 60 developers showcasing 10,000 units of properties with a total retail value of nearly RM5.7 billion.

Organized by the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda), Mapex 2007 marks the 10th year the organization has coordinated the renowned property exhibitions.

President Ng Seing Liong acknowledged improved sales in the sector due to the liberalization of Foreign Investment Committee guidelines on foreign acquisitions and the removal of the Real Property Gains Tax.

However, Ng also placed emphasis on the negative aspects of the private sector subsidizing low cost housing with the rising construction costs.

“With every escalation in the costs of doing business as well as cost of building materials and with the capped of low cost housing price at RM42,000, the challenge of subsidizing low cost housing becomes more onerous (for the private sector),” he said.

“Rehda has, at many platforms, proposed to the Government that the role of providing low cost housing to the rakyat should revert back to the Government.”

Ng said the low cost quota for the private sector could be reduced and scaled down over the next few years with the Government’s eventual take-over of responsibility.

Also, he added that an upward revision of the ceiling price from RM42,000 to RM60,000 to mitigate the increased development cost is needed in today’s market.