‘MEGA INFRASTRUCTURE DEALS TO LIFT SCH PROFITS’
KUALA LUMPUR: The price of affordable houses in the country needs to be carefully assessed and evaluated based on many aspects such as location, facility and product quality.
Rahim & Co strategic planning and research director Sulaiman Akhmady Mohd Saheh said the move to review the price of affordable houses is important as the segment is offering prices based on the open market.
“The pricing standards for affordable homes are not necessarily based on the government or bank institutions’ perspectives as other aspects need to be considered, particularly the location and convenience offered from the development,” he said, here, recently.
Bank Negara Malaysia, through its quarterly bulletin, recently reported that there is a lack of affordable houses in the country to meet the needs of the public.
The central bank said the issue of ability to buy a home is largely due to unmatched supply and demand as well as slower income growth.
Additionally, new launches that far exceeded the level of buying ability and rising home prices over household income also contributed to the problem.
Sulaiman said the issue of lack of affordable houses was not related to supply or stocks in the market, but involved purchase transactions among the public.
He said affordable housing projects that are in good location and have good products at the right price are not many, as most affordable homes are located far from workplaces and thereby restrict the buyer’s desire to own the property.
“Though there are some houses offered at good prices and locations, developers are more likely to build apartments where most buyers preferred to buy landed houses,” he said.
Sulaiman said these situations reflected that affordable housing prices needed to be scrutinised to ensure they met the needs of the public on the basis of combined factors, such as location, convenience and the buyer’s capabilities.
“For example, the developer may put a price of RM500,000 for an affordable house and it is worth looking at the Pantai Dalam area, but the price is unreasonable if the property is in Banting, Selangor.”
He said the prices of affordable houses should be examined to also provide opportunity for a few developers to offer apartments of between 500 and 600 sq ft at RM300,000 or RM400,000 each.