‘All must help with housing’
PM: State govts, private sector must also pitch in
KUALA LUMPUR: The promise to build one million affordable homes in 10 years is not solely the responsibility of the federal government, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The Prime Minister said state governments too need to fulfil their obligations by providing land needed for housing development.
“Likewise, private sector developers – they need to invest in such developments,” he said this during the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) launch here yesterday.
Pakatan Harapan in their manifesto for the 14th General Election (GE14), promised to build one million affordable houses in 10 years.
Dr Mahathir said the National Property Information Centre revealed that 40,916 dwelling units (including serviced apartments and small office home offices) were unsold as of the third quarter of last year.
“The government hopes that through this expo (Malaysian Property Expo, or Mapex 2019), the unsold units could be matched with
buyers’ needs and increase the buying and selling of properties, which will then enhance the country’s economy,” he said.
Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said that affordable homes refer to homes priced below RM300,000.
She said there were 51 developers taking part in the Expo with over 20,000 units of houses valued at RM12.5bil being sold there.
This comprises half of the unsold units, she said.
“The response was good from developers, and we hope this will pick up and people will be able to own houses,” she said.
The developers participating in the campaign have designed special packages for customers attending the event.
Property developer Mah Sing, for example, will launch its incentive programme named “RM500,000 In Your Bank” to support the campaign and celebrate the company’s Silver Jubilee this year, which among other
things, offers attractions such as a “refer a friend” reward, free legal fees and lucky draws.
Mah Sing founder and managing director Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum recently said that there was no onesize-fits-all solution, so he said the programme was designed to offer benefits for every type of buyer.