Kuala Lumpur: Eco World Development Group Bhd (EcoWorld Malaysia) launched HOPE today, its most comprehensive and complete home ownership solution to-date, following a signing ceremony with its valued partner Maybank.
HOPE, which is short for Home Ownership Programme with EcoWorld, offers two methods for purchasers to start their home ownership journey or own their desired home today:
The campaign applies to a wide selection of EcoWorld Malaysia’s residential properties and will run for a period of six months until 30 June 2019.
“We are delighted to be able to partner Maybank once again to offer HOPE to help Malaysians own their dream home. Last year when we launched our #OnlyEcoWorld Campaign which ran for 4 months from July – October 2018, Maybank supported us strongly with its MaxiHome Ezy mortgage product,” said Dato’ Chang Khim Wah, President & CEO of EcoWorld Malaysia.
“Along with great support from Public Bank who came up with their Deferred Instalment Plan, another highly flexible mortgage loan to make homeownership easier and more affordable, we were able to create the unbeatable H2O deal. This innovative and well-thought through mechanism was warmly embraced by homeowners at all the Group’s projects and contributed greatly towards EcoWorld Malaysia’s sales, secured during the campaign period alone, of close to RM2 billion,” he added.
Targeted at helping genuine homeowners, H2O proved to be THE solution that the market had been waiting for. When the #OnlyEcoWorld Campaign ended on 31 October 2018, H2O had successfully helped more than 1,781 young homeowners and upgraders own their choice EcoWorld home.
“We were delighted at the response to #OnlyEcoWorld but we also realised, when we were running the campaign, that there were some people we had not been able to help with H2O. Many of these are young people just starting out in their careers who really loved and wanted to live in our developments because they were drawn to the distinctive EcoWorld DNA present in every one of our projects. However they were not able to get their desired mortgage yet and were either living with their parents or renting their home,” Chang mentioned.
“This included our own employees, especially millennials and our junior team members. Many of them had been keen to participate in the earlier campaign but because of their youth or current salary levels they had two key challenges. Either they had not saved up enough to make the downpayment or their credit profiles were not sufficiently strong to be able to obtain a mortgage from the bank,” Chang explained.
“To resolve the above conundrum we once again approached Maybank – this time we wanted to explore how their innovative HouzKEY Rent-to-Own product could provide a leg up for this group of people to get onto the homeownership ladder faster. For those of us who are a bit older we know from personal experience that property is the best and most certain hedge against inflation. In addition, a good property is able to yield positive returns and substantial capital appreciation over time.”
“As such, if we are able to assist the young to own a good home earlier, it will also enable them to accumulate wealth sooner. Our teams burned the midnight oil together to truly understand the needs of individuals not presently served by the mortgage market and together we came up with a fantastic new solution – S2O with Maybank HouzKEY and EcoWorld,” Chang added.
Under S2O, Maybank will help to bridge the property ownership process by first purchasing the property and then leasing it to the prospective homeowner. S2O is an adaptation of Maybank’s existing HouzKEY product, with new and improved features incorporated in partnership with EcoWorld to help participants become homeowners in the near future.
The key elements of S2O are:
Low initial cost |
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Low monthly payment |
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Stay 1st – Buy later
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Savings element from rental |
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Secure the property price & eliminate price fluctuation |
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S2O will therefore allow those who are presently renting and want to stay in an EcoWorld project to move in to their ideal home now with the confidence that they can become homeowners eventually.
“S2O has been specially designed to help our customers attain their homeownership dream by starting off simply as a lessee with Maybank. Through the unique rental conversion feature we have built into S2O, we are able to help them start building wealth even before they buy their first home. We are confident that once they move into our homes and experience living in a Signature EcoWorld development with our EcoWorld Class product and service quality, they will surely make the decision to become permanent members of the EcoWorld community. Their presence and active participation within the project that they live in will further increase its vibrancy thereby accelerating value creation for the benefit of all,” Chang explained.
This one-of-a-kind programme will benefit not just young people but also upgraders who:
1st-time home buyers and upgraders who do not have more than one housing loan are eligible to apply for S2O.
HOPE with both H2O and S2O was first unveiled to employees of EcoWorld and its business associates at the end of 2018. In less than a month, more than 200 units have been reserved by employees keen to become an EcoWorld homeowner.
“Following the enthusiastic reception to HOPE by our own employees and business associates, we are extremely excited to launch HOPE for the public today. We believe it offers a great opportunity not only to first time house buyers but also upgraders looking to own a choice EcoWorld home. The two homeownership mechanisms available under HOPE, namely S2O and H2O, cater to different market segments and provide a truly comprehensive, practical and effective solution to the current challenge of home ownership in Malaysia. It is also our way of supporting the national agenda on home ownership,” Chang commented.
Today’s signing ceremony to formalise the collaboration between EcoWorld Malaysia and Maybank marks the official start of HOPE with the brand new S2O mechanism and an updated H2O package.
“Being an organisation with a mission of humanising financial services, Maybank is continuously looking to introduce new and innovative financial solutions that will give our customers greater convenience as well as the opportunity to secure a better future. We believe we can help address this growing issue of concern in Malaysia for home ownership, by partnering with those who have a similar mission. Today, we are truly proud of this collaboration with EcoWorld, and we believe that our HouzKEY product is the perfect fit for this S2O program by HOPE, complementing the mortgage offering by Maybank under H2O that has proven to be successful last year. Since the launch of HouzKEY in 2018, many homebuyers have benefitted from it and we believe, this momentum will continue under this S2O programme,” said Sally Lye, Managing Director of Maybank’s Real Estate Ventures.
“On behalf of all of us at EcoWorld I would like to thank Maybank for their invaluable support in collaborating with us on HOPE. Their willingness to think out-of-the-box, responsiveness and genuine desire to assist homebuyers has enabled maximum flexibility and minimum fuss to be built into the programme – this will ensure that HOPE is able to help a much larger segment of Malaysians to own their dream home earlier,” Chang said.