The Penang government has embarked on a "Mission: Home Possible" roadshow to promote it's low, medium cost and affordable homes to the public.

The move is born out of intense and continuous criticisms from various quarters that the Pakatan Rakyat government was not doing enough to built low and medium cost housing for Penangites.

State executive councillor for housing Jagdeep Singh Deo ( right ) said the state government understood that it might be difficult for working people to submit their application forms for housing during working hours.

"As such, I have decided to go on a road-show entitled 'Mission: Home-Possible'," Jagdeep said at a press conference today.

In this road show, Jagdeep, who is Dato Keramat assemblyperson, will be present to meet hopeful home applicants.

"In this mission, officers from the state housing department together with the Penang Development Corporation will be going from one parliamentary constituency to another fortnightly on Saturdays," he added.

                    

 Lucky first time house buyers

Besides this, Penangites obtain registration forms, update their status in the PDC’s system and also submit their completed application forms, he said.

He added that this 'Mission: Home-Possible' for the parliamentary constituencies of Jelutong and Tanjong, will begin on Aug 23 at Komtar’s level 3 foyer from 10am-5pm.

Jagdeep said since December last year, when the new application forms for affordable housing (including the new range of RM200,000; RM300,000 and RM400,000 categories) were launched, the public has taken over 100,000 forms.

He said to date approximately 3,000 have been returned and registered in the system.

The Penang government’s top priority is the provision of affordable housing for first time Penangite house-buyers, he said.

He added that the state had embarked on a two -prong mission, firstly, to lower housing prices by the announcement of various  measures in budget 2014 in December last year.

"The property prices in Penang have risen in the past few years, no doubt, as a result of the state being very attractive having regards to it competent, accountable and transparent administration," he quipped.

The cooling measures include the extension of the moratorium on the subsequent sale of low and low medium cost housing units to 10 years from the principal purchase, Jagdeep said.

There is also the moratorium on the subsequent sale of affordable housing units to five years from the principal purchase, he added.

Dousing steam of rising prices

Another cooling off measure includes the imposition of a 3% approval fee in relation to purchases by foreigners and the imposition of a 2% approval fee upon vendors for transactions executed within 3 years of purchase, he stressed.

This is further to the requirement that there is a limit on foreigners’s purchases, namely properties not less than RM2 million (landed) and RM1 million (apartment) on the island and RM1 million (landed and apartment) on the mainland, Jagdeep said.

"Although the cooling measures which were announced in December 2013, came into force only in March this year, it is hoped that it will be effective  primarily to curb speculation which will only give rise to spiralling house prices," Jagdeep said.

He added that the Penang government’ second prong is to make accessible affordable housing, in particular, to first time Penangite house buyers.

He added that together with PDC , the state has embarked on several affordable housing projects which will deliver approximately 20,000 such units in the next five to 15 years.

Jagdeep also said that apart from that the Penang government is also encouraging the private sector to build such houses  and in return the latter will receive several incentives  - a workable formula for them to participate in building 100 percent affordable housing projects.

"Towards this end, the Penang government is taking into consideration the views of all stakeholders, and will, in the near future, announce guidelines for private developers who undertake such housing projects,

 "In fact, it should be noted that several private developers have in fact submitted such plans to build affordable housing, which to date is about 10,000 units," he said.