KUALA LUMPUR: The government’s promise of providing one million affordable homes over 10 years is a tall order but an achievable target, said CBRE-WTW managing director Foo Gee Jen (pix).
He said the target, which works out to about 100,000 units per year, is a much more realistic target compared with the previous government’s promise of delivering one million affordable homes within five years, of which only 100,000 units were delivered.
Despite the more “palatable” target, Foo said that the government must first fix the fundamental issues and get the National Housing Policy right.
“We should not drive this entirely to the private sector. What will happen if all these things are driven to the private sector? There would be even heavier cross subsidy to the M40 group. The government should not just be looking at winning the vote by making the B40 happy. If there is too much cross subsidy, the M40 group will suffer,” he told reporters at the launch of CBRE-WTW Asia Pacific Real Estate Market Outlook 2019 report today.
He said the government’s target can be achieved if all state governments work together with the federal government, and put their resources to good use for example, state-owned land, but stressed that the land must be in the right location with proper infrastructure in order to avoid developing failed affordable housing projects such as the one in Bukit Beruntung, Hulu Selangor.
On the National Housing Policy 2.0, Foo said the policy “would just be a piece of paper” if the nation’s legislation in terms of the development processes, are not in place.
He said basic issues such as local and structure plans, land matters, differing regulations on bumiputra discount, development charges and others need to be addressed in order to achieve successful implementation of the policy.
“With regard to land, it is still a state matter. All land is still under the jurisdiction of the state, so there is conflict between what the federal government can do and what the state governments can overrule.
“These are the fundamental issues that need to be looked into before we can really have an ideal situation where the National Housing Policy would be able to realise the dreams and hopes of the rakyat,” he added.
Meanwhile, Foo lauded the government’s move in gazetting the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020 as it would pave the way for more systematic planning and provides more certainty to property industry stakeholders.
“There will be no more haphazard developments for example, roads ‘choking’ due to high density. Governance will be the key point moving forward,” he said.
