‘Relax requirements for applicants’

KUALA LUMPUR: The government must emphasise helping young people to own affordable homes by relaxing the requirements in Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia (PR1MA) projects.

Prospective homeowner Brian Joseph Moreira, 25, hoped that the approval process would be made less stringent.

“PR1MA is quite strict and they look into bank records, payslips and the family’s financial standing prior to approval.

“I suggest that the government study the opportunities that middle-class families have in getting loans to buy affordable homes since housing in the Klang Valley is too expensive,” said the physiotherapist when asked about his wishes for the 2018 Budget.

Fresh graduate Nur Ain Wan Taha, 25, hoped the government would lower the salary requirement of potential buyers to below RM2,000.

“Even though I’m single, I still need a house for myself. It will take three to 10 years to be able to earn enough to purchase a house,” said the administrative executive, who earned less than RM2,000.

Employees Provident Fund officer Amirul Syakirin Dhazir said the main drawback of PR1MA was the monthly instalment.

He said the payment for his RM400,000 apartment in Sentul had set him back RM2,000 a month.

“Anyone earning about RM2,600 a month in an urban area knows that paying that sum is close to impossible,” said Amirul, adding that this was why the scheme had a slow uptake.

The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations secretary-general Datuk Paul Selvaraj called on the government to build affordable homes to ease end-financing woes.

“We are forcing banks to be more liberal and that creates risk for consumers. The government needs to find ways to match income with home prices.

“They should do this by regulating house prices within the affordable home category.

“They also have to ensure that when the private sector takes the lead, a certain portion of their development is really affordable,” he said, adding that young middle-income Malaysians were finding themselves increasingly cash-strapped. A 2015 report by Khazanah Research Institute cited that the median house price in Malaysia was 4.4 times the median annual household income, making the housing market “seriously unaffordable” compared with global standards.

Economist Dr Hoo Ke Ping had called on the government to flood the market with affordable housing, through land swaps such as the Danau Desa Federal Territories Affordable Housing scheme (Rumawip) in Danau Desa.

He said PR1MA was still scratching the surface as the emphasis of banks and developers was still on high-end housing.