KUALA LUMPUR: Those in the low- and middle-income brackets will find owning a house in Selangor financially challenging because of “additional requirements” imposed on housing projects, economists said.
They said the additional requirements would only be counterproductive to efforts to assist them with home ownership, as new costs would be added on to implement projects and homebuyers would be forced to absorb them.
Universiti Tun Abdul Razak economist Dr Barjoyai Bardai said such requirements by the Selangor government would only increase prices of homes.
“Additional requirements mean additional costs and time.”
He said homebuyers, who were mostly in the bottom-40 (B40) and middle-40 (M40) groups, would have to bear the additional costs.
To overcome the problem, he suggested that the Federal Government build public housing on leasehold land.
He said rather than building homes on land with a 99-year lease, the Federal Government could adopt the practice of China, whose land had shorter leasehold tenure of between 30 and 60 years.
“Maybe the Federal Government can go for a 50-year lease. Building houses on land with shorter leasehold tenure reduce costs.
“Or, we can go shorter than that. Some countries opt for a 30-year lease and this is sufficient. The houses are cheap and the low-income earners can afford them.
“Affordable homes are needed by B40 and M40.
“They need a comfortable place to raise a family and pursue their careers.”
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, when highlighting the issue on Saturday, pledged that the government would review the additional conditions if Barisan Nasional wrested the state in the upcoming polls.
He said Selangor imposed conditions on developers, including Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia (PR1MA), the Federal Government’s housing programme that catered to the low- and middle-income groups.
Universiti Malaya economist Dr Fatimah Kari commended the government’s efforts to build more affordable homes, which, she said, could boost the economy.
“The working class needs to buy houses and when they do, it will boost the country’s economic performance and growth.
“But, the government must ensure that prices are affordable.
“At the moment, with additional requirements imposed, it leads us to the question ‘can B40 and M40 buy homes?’.”
On March 6, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar reportedly said the Federal Government’s efforts to provide affordable homes were being
restricted by the Selangor government’s policies, especially those involving conversion of land status and exhorbitant land prices.
He had said PR1MA had planned to build 60,000 houses in Selangor, but only 7,000 could be completed, with 27,000 more under construction.