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LETTER | According to World Bank 2015 report titled “East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth” Malaysia is among the more urbanised countries of East Asia where its urban population continues to increase rapidly, but its urban areas are also among the least dense.

According to the same report, despite being eight largest urban area in terms of size, because of low density, the Kuala Lumpur urban area was only the 22nd largest in population.

Low density would mean that there is the availability of space for planned growth, especially when it comes to building houses.

But it is rather unfortunate that developers and government policy continue to facilitate growth for high-end properties which are completely out-of-reach of the masses.

With access to clean water, electricity, sanitation, roads, telecommunication, basic transport facilities and jobs, urban Malaysian generally enjoy a decent standard of living but same cannot be said of owning a house which is currently out of reach for average Malaysians.

According to Bank Negara, owning a house is beyond the means of many households where undersupply of affordable houses continues to remain an issue.

“Majority of new housing project launches are skewed towards the unaffordable range and growth in house pricing outpacing that of income growth. This income-supply mismatch has now caused a glut in the property market,” it said.

In principle, the government’s decision to freeze new approvals for properties above RM1 million which includes serviced apartments and luxury condominiums until a time when the housing market has balanced itself is welcomed.

But the Malaysia Consumers Movement (MCM) believes that there is room to reassess if this RM1 million threshold is indeed appropriate? Currently, there are not many households which can even afford a house in the range of RM500,000.

The MCM commends the government for its PR1MA initiative in providing affordable housing for the masses although there remains much work to be done.

While, these affordable homes under PRIMA will help mitigate the broader affordable housing availability issue, urbanisation is outpacing that of making these affordable homes available, especially in Kuala Lumpur.

MCM calls upon the government to work harder in delivering the target numbers of PRIMA homes.

On the other hand, the government must continue to insist that private developers play an equally important role is ensuring that prices of houses which they build are affordable and acceptable in terms of quality.

Affordable housing does not mean that developers can build substandard houses to maximise profits or merely to comply with policy or regulatory requirement.


The writer is president, Malaysia Consumers Movement (MCM).

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

 

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