Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) Sarawak chapter president Alex Ting has expressed his disappointment over the government not emulating the success of Singapore's Housing Development Board (HDB) model.

"The success of the HDB has somehow not been implemented in Malaysia.

"Many people in this industry are very disappointed, and the public ought to be even more disappointed," he told a press conference in Petaling Jaya, in conjunction with the release of the “MIEA Property Market Sentiment Report 2018.”

HDB is the sole authority in charge of providing affordable public housing to Singaporeans.

Initially aimed at providing low-cost flats and eradicating the city state's squatting issues, the agency has since evolved into providing housing for various classes of income earners.

These flats are also rented out to those who cannot afford to buy. The authority also ensures that the ethnic composition of each project corresponds to the national composition, so as to avoid racial segregation.

Ting said the housing policy in Malaysia was in need of a revamp.

"I really pity the young people who cannot afford to buy houses at RM300,000. If we look at their pay against the loan for a RM300,000 house, a 30-year-loan is about RM1,500 a month.

"You have to be earning about RM5,000 a month, and I think many young people are not getting that sort of income," he said.

The government has in the last decade implemented various affordable housing initiatives, but these are not centralised, with some coming under selected federal ministries, and others under state governments.

One of the more widely-touted programmes is the Perumahan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (PR1MA) aimed at the middle class.

However, Ting does not believe that PR1MA is using the right approach.

"I noticed that some of the projects are implemented in the wrong places, and their prices to me are not really cheap," he said.

PR1MA housing can range from RM250,000 to RM400,000.

Ting added that for Sarawak, the range of affordability should be around the RM200,000 mark.