Soon after joining the workforce, 27-year-old account Wee Shir Lik joined thousands of others in applying for the much-touted 1Malaysia People's Housing Scheme (PR1MA) last year.

houses However, the Kelantanese later decided not to wait for the result of her application, and together with her boyfriend, bought a condominium unit at Jalan Klang Lama.

The RM380,000, 900square foot unit will be her home after marriage two years later, as soon as construction is complete.

Speaking of the PR1MA application, Wee explained that she decided not to wait due to the simple reason that the number of applicants far outnumber the actual units available and as such, she did not expect any positive response to her application.

As the prices of houses continue to rise, many young home buyers are facing similar concerns - that they cannot afford their ideal home while the houses that they can afford are not good enough. 

As such, the affordable houses introduced under PR1MA have become the rage in the market.

Although PR1MA Corp Malaysia has advertised over the radio recently, asking people to register themselves under the scheme, the reality, it would seem, is that the demand for the affordable homes far outnumber the supply.

The first PR1MA affordable housing project is located at Putrajaya and received more than 7,000 applicantions during the ballot process, while only 560 units were available.

house Aside from stiff competition, the PR1MA houses require several years to be completed, while ballot exercises for most of the projects have yet to be announced. These factors have turn many young house buyers away towards housing projects launched by private developers.

This is despite BN vowing to build one million affordable houses in five years, as stated in its GE13 manifesto.

Focus on high-demand areas

PR1MA, meanwhile, aims to build 500,000 affordable houses by 2018, costing between RM100,000 and RM400,000. Its CEO Abdul Mutalib Alias earlier announced that 30 housing projects nationwide, comprising 38,000 houses, were approved under the first phase of the project.

However, in August, he stated that the number of applicants have reached 250,000 and steadily growing.

According to the eligibility criteria set by PR1MA, applicants must be a Malaysian citizen, aged 21 and above, and the individual or combined household income must be between RM2,500 and RM7,500.

Nevertheless, the most controversial condition set is that those who already one property may still apply under the scheme.

Facing such a huge demand, PR1MA should focus on areas with high housing demand, such as Klang Valley and Penang. The "Greater KL" national key economic area is estimating that the population of Klang Valley will grow from 6 million to 10 million by year 2020.

According to the earlier media reports, there are five PR1MA project sites in the Klang Valley - Cheras, Kajang, Bukit Jalil, Setapak, Bukit Bintang and Brickfields. The projected number of the houses is 5,836 units.

At the same time, PR1MA is set to build 6,174 units of affordable houses at Seremban Sentral and Seremban Utara.

The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) president Michael Yam opined that not all the places around the country need affordable housing projects as much as major cities with huge population such as Penang and the Klang Valley.

He pointed out that in other states, private developers are able to provide cheaper houses as lands prices are cheaper.

Yam added that the promise made by BN in their manifesto was impractical as only about 100,000 houses will be built every year.

“You are saying that they are going to build an average of 200,000 houses per year, but we only manage to build 100,000 houses in a year.

“Even if you start building now, you only can get the (house) keys three years from now, while timing is another issue,” Yam said when contacted by Malaysiakini .

Another issue concerning the PR1MA scheme is location. Yam does not exclude the possibility that housing projects will be situated further away from downtown areas in order to control the prices of the houses.

Reduce 10-year resale restriction

Meanwhile, land use and transportation planning consultant Goh Bok Yen said that restriction imposed by the government for not allowing PR1MA house buyers to sell their property within ten years is too rigid.

He said the requirements of the house owners on their houses will change over time, hence the house may not suitable for them ten years later.

Goh suggested that the government follow the Singapore government’s example by shortening the number of years under the restriction and allowing for applicants to apply to buy bigger houses.

The government, he added, could also relocate the residents at certain residential areas to a bigger and better place, and take back old affordable houses in order to upgrade them.

“This is a dynamic policy, it’s very flexible,” he told Malaysiakini .

DAP Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong (left) suggested that the government build medium-cost houses in the downtown area that is supported by good public transportation, which can be rented to the young.

“What the government should consider is that not everyone needs to buy a house,” he said.

Despite several attempts, Malaysiakini had failed garner comments from PR1MA Corp as well as Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan.