Penang mulls lease for affordable homes
GEORGE TOWN: The state government is considering a proposal from the Real Estate & Housing Developers’ Association Penang (Rehda) to lease affordable housing for a 30-year or a 60-year period.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state government was looking into this option because of the difficulty to obtain bank loans nowadays.
He was speaking at a forum titled “The Future of Penang After GE 14” at the StarProperty.my Fair at Gurney Paragon and Gurney Plaza, moderated by Starproperty Sdn Bhd general manager Ernest Bernard Towle.
The other panellists were Universiti Sains Malaysia Prof Dr Nor’Aini Yusof and Rehda Penang chairman Datuk Toh Chin Leong.
“We need to re-explore the concept of public housing to provide a roof and not a house for those who can’t afford to buy property.
“The state government can build these houses for lease or the private developers can build and then sur- render such houses to the state at cost to rent. A price mechanism has to be worked out,” he added.
On the high price of property in Penang, Chow said this was because house purchasers were now cross-subsidising affordable housing.
“If a property is RM1mil, the purchaser is probably paying RM100,000 to RM150,000 of that amount to subsidise affordable housing.
“The Federal Government also needs to play an important role to build public housing as it collects more taxes than the state,” Chow added.
Earlier, Toh proposed that the state government look into leasing affordable housing units.
“If affordable housing are only for leasing, then no one can speculate on it, as the units cannot be converted for Airbnb use or for any commercial purposes,” Toh said.