vox populi small thumbnail 'Why is state land which is held by the government not developed into cheap and affordable housing for the rakyat?'

Developers expect higher property prices

Faz: Housing developers are in the business to make money. Do not expect charity from them as they are not welfare organisations. The blame for rising cost of houses are basically the government lackadaisical attitude toward this group.

I notice the government is prepared to condone rising prices. Instead of curbing prices, it chooses to raise the loan ceiling and/or loan period, which will mean a lot more of us will be indebted until we die.

It is very clear that this policy of the government is self-serving in the sense that the government minimizes its meddling of the developer's finance, but will ask for "contributions" for political projects or "donations" at election time. The rakyat are the real losers.

At the moment, there is no viable way of having a roof over your head unless you buy a house. Renting is no longer cheap. Over a long run, it's cheaper to buy. This the crux of the problem as house buyers are at the mercy of the developers, especially with government on their side.

To overcome the impasse, may I suggest the government use the still plentiful government land to build affordable housing, either for sale or for rent. The operation must be above board.

Housing for rentals should be the core government business as no other bodies could endure the long period to break even on their investment. These houses could be managed by the city councils or town councils charging a reasonable rental.

Young families should find this attractive while they stablise their financial status. The availability of housing for rentals will definitely release the pressure on the demand for housing, and thus the housing cost will be adjusted accordingly.

Anonymous: The problem of unaffordable house lies with the government and local authorities. There seems to be a common practice of land grabbing which is condoned and approved by the authorities.

Often land that are alienated, exchanged or sold to private entities are developed by private enterprises to maximize profit for its shareholders. Why is state land held by the government not developed into housing for the rakyat?

Singapore through the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has over the years developed thousands of units which are sold to the homeless citizens at affordable price. Unless the government do something along this line, the average wage earner will never be able to buy a home.

Mangodurian: The bumiputera housing discount is a government policy and the cost of it should be borne by the government, not the developers - who will undoubtably pass it down to non-bumi buyers.

Do away with it. Where a bumi wants to buy, he or she can always be entitled to the equivalent 'discount' from the government by having the government pay the difference.

In that way, all taxpayers are directly accountable to helping BN implement the help-the-bumi policy, instead of non-bumis effectively subsidising bumis' house purchases. But that's probably the grand idea in the first place.

Jedi_Who: Imported materials and foodstuffs have not gone up in many countries like Singapore and other strong economies because their currency is strong against the countries they import from.

That is how the Malaysian government should have protected us. Instead, we see prices rising every so often.

We have to face the facts that our government is incompetent and only fabricating statistics showing a favourable growth and economical strength. Our currency is devaluing fast, it seems.

4thForce: I know this is impractical, but I would like to suggest to all Malaysians to postpone buying a house/apartment/flat for at least one year, if not more.

The prices of houses presently are simply ridiculous and not affordable to most Malaysians. Let us see the effect of this year-long boycott against the housing developers and banks and those greedy capitalists.

Kgen: A boycott won't work. Developers will just slow down or postpone their projects until the boycott is over. They will be hardly affected. Once consumers start buying again, prices will shoot up due to pent-up demand.

NewMalaysia: Every time there's a general election housing developers are compelled to fund certain political parties. So every election year, the price of houses increase by 15 percent to 20 percent!

House price spike in Kedah - state gov't blamed

Anonimous Z: I've confirmed and verified from the Kedah locals that what Real Estate and Housing Development Association (Rehda) Kedah chief Rique Liew claimed is true.

In fact, an insider said one should have a private one-to-one meeting with housing exco member Phahrolrazi Zawawi through his agents if he wants quick approval. No joke, it is an open secret.

I thought Pakatan Rakyat practises transparency and one rule for all. Why does Kedah Pakatan still copy the ad-hoc and case-by-case basis used rampantly by the corrupt Umnoputras?

Should Kedah fall back to BN, Phahrolrazi would be the main reason. I understand that many of those who have fervently supported Kedah PAS are now really feeling very frustrated and sad as they are in the dilemma on what to do in the coming GE13.

Myop101: It's time for Kedahans to seriously consider whether the present state government should be removed. There is no point keeping it for the sake of keeping it if they are inefficient.

Rick Teo: Well, if the Pakatan government in Kedah cannot rule tthe state, then the only way is to return it to the corrupt BN government, which is better at governing it - with corruption.

 

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