RM3mil habitat fund for heritage enclave folk

GEORGE TOWN: To keep the residential population of the heritage enclave here alive, the Penang government is ready with a fund to help property owners restore their old shophouses – but there is a catch.

Heritage shophouse owners can get RM100,000 or more if they agree to sign long-term leases with residents at attractive rents.

“By long-term, we mean six to 10 years – long enough for residents to raise their families,” said George Town World Heritage Inc (GTWHI) general manager Dr Ang Ming Chee.

Dr Ang said the George Town Heritage Habitat Seed Fund was launched last May with an initial RM3mil, adding: “We have had two successful fund recipients and four more are in the works.”

She said she could not reveal the rental amounts as they were private lease agreements between the property owners and tenants, but gave assurance that the fund would only be released after both parties had agreed to all the terms.

Restoring a heritage property is costly as local by-laws prevent owners from using modern materials such as cement, while materials like limestone and timber are expensive.

This, Dr Ang said, was one of several strategies by the state to prevent residents from moving out of the heritage enclave completely.

She added that the people of George Town included those who lived and worked there.

“There are more people working in the heritage site than before and more people visiting. We cannot factor in residents only as George Town is a trading town,” she said.

She added that GTWHI was working with community-focused urban regeneration organisation Think City to assess the heritage enclave’s latest demographics and determine what other measures were needed.

Last November, the state introduced another idea by using doublestorey pre-war shophouses it owned.

State Housing Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo announced that the state, through the Penang Island City Council, would split the property up, allowing residents to rent the floors upstairs and shops to take up the ground floor.

“We will rent the upper floors to tenants for as low as RM800 a month,” he said.