Only 24% of 72,310 affordable houses built in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: The government has completed 24 percent of the 72,310 affordable houses targeted to be built in Sabah by the year 2018.

Sandakan MP Stephen Wong said the government had committed to build one million affordable houses by 2018, selling at RM300,000 and below.

Johor has the biggest target of 128,436 units, Sabah (72,310), Kedah (58,440), Sarawak (37,915) and Kuala Lumpur (69,762).

However, Wong said a recent parliamentary reply from the Federal Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister showed that the promise was failing as only 27 percent of one million affordable houses have been built so far after the Barisan Nasional had won the last general election four years ago.

Wong said that it would be impossible for the government to fulfil such a promise within a year before the next general election.

“How can it be possible for the government to complete the construction of more than 700,000 houses within a year?” he asked in a statement yesterday.

He pointed out that Sabah has a lower median income level than Peninsular Malaysia, but Sabah has expensive property prices, making the houses unaffordable for Sabahans.

According to an Institute Rakyat's research, the affordability index for Sabah housing was the highest at 11.48, twice the national index of 5.78.

“It shows that how difficult it is for a Sabahan to own a house,” he added.