Self-employed, married rural youths eligible to own house via RBN

Rural youths, who are married, now have the opportunity to own their own houses through the National Buildings (RBN) scheme introduced by the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development through the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda).

Risda, in a statement said, through the scheme, youths without salary slips and are self-employed in the agricultural sector such as farming, business or agro agricultural activities are eligible to apply for the RBN financing loan.

"Those who are eligible will be financed by the Agrobank through the funding that is to be launched soon," said the statement.

On Monday, the ministry and Risda signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Agrobank to facilitate the application for the RBN financial loan through special financing products to be launched this month.

According to the statement, the loan approval is in accordance to the existing procedure, which among others, required applicants without pay slips to have a concrete evidence of legal income sources by local leaders for their farming activities.

So far, Risda received 2,089 applications, with 849 in the process of being approved while 213 applications did not have pay slips.

In the tabling of the 2017 Budget last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced an allocation of RM100 million for the RBN project to be built on the applicant's land with the specification of three bedrooms and two bathrooms of 700 sq ft.

Through the incentive, the RBN home is sold at only RM45,000 per unit compared to the original price of RM65,000 in the peninsula and RM85,000 in Sabah and Sarawak.

-- BERNAMA