PUTRAJAYA: The government is on track to build one million affordable homes by 2028 as pledged in its election manifesto, says Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.
She said in the 18 months since July 2018, close to 200,000 units of affordable homes have either been completed or are under construction.
“We have completed 46,666 units, while another 151,933 are being constructed now. In total, that is almost 200,000 from mid-2018 until the end of 2019. We have surpassed our target for now.
“But we will not relax, we will continue with our effort to provide affordable housing for the rakyat. We may even review our target of one million homes, in five years time, if we surpass our goal” she told a press conference, here, today.
Apart from the 198,599 units, a further 363,102 units are currently being planned for construction, said Zuraida.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had, in its election manifesto, laid out plans to build one million affordable homes for Malaysians within 10 years.
Zuraida said the recent House Ownership Campaign (HOC), which ended on Dec 31 last year, had also exceeded the ministry’s expectation, with a total of 31,415 units being sold under the campaign that lasted a year.
“The total sales value we managed to generate under the HOC was RM19.8 billion, billions more than our initial target of between RM15 billion and RM17 billion.,” she said.
Under HOC, house buyers are given incentives and discounts, including stamp duty exemptions and a 10% off on purchase price, in the government’s bid to reduce the number of unsold properties in the country.
Zuraida said the ministry has also received feedback from the public on the campaign, including calls for it to be further extended, but said the ministry has no such plans.
“However, in the coming months, we will look at our achievements and feedback, and if needed, we will come up with a separate housing programme that offers incentives to the rakyat,” she said.
Zuraida said private developers have also similarly given the thumbs-up to the campaign as it has helped them reduce their number of unsold units.
“Some of the developers have in fact told me that they plan to offer similar discounts like under HOC, even after the end of the campaign, because they want to minimise any potential losses due to unsold units. So they are certainly encouraged to do so,” she added.
