The Federal Territories Affordable Housing (Rumawip) project will not emulate the 1Malaysia People's Housing programme (PR1MA) in reducing the resale moratorium to five years.

Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said the present 10 year moratorium will be maintained to prevent speculation.

"PR1MA houses are all over the place. Rumawip are in prime areas, near the city, so we are worried.

"We will give moratorium of 10 years (for Rumawip) because we don't want these properties to be in the hands of speculators. We are trying to curb speculating," Tengku Adnan told reporters after launching the Residensi Seri Wahyu, a Rumawip project, in Kuala Lumpur today.

Earlier in his officiating speech, he had explained that the Rumawip moratorium is to prevent uncontrollable speculation on the property to ensure that middle or low-income earners can own these properties.

In January, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had announced that the moratorium on PR1MA houses had been reduced from 10 years to five years to make the housing project more attractive to the public.

Tengku Adnan also said that they were aiming specifically at first-time buyers for the Residensi Seri Wahyu Rumawip project.

He also revealed that the Rumawip project currently has a completion rate of 67 percent, with 53,246 units of houses completed out of the projected 80,000 by year 2020.

This indicator takes into account projects under the categories of "done", "under construction" and "development order".