Penang tops in affordable housing

GEORGE TOWN: Critics of the state housing policy should consider that Penang now has the highest number of affordable housing projects either completed or pending compared to before 2008, said state housing committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo ( pix).

Jagdeep said that comments about the increase of property prices in Penang due to higher processing costs placed on developers by the local authorities, had overlooked that it has not affected the developers’ ability to build more affordable units.

He said the comments by political economist Isham Jalil was seen as slanted.

Although he agreed that there were properties on the island priced beyond the reach of Malaysians, there were still many affordable housing schemes available for midrange buyers.

Jagdeep pointed out the state had constructed 24,000 lowcost and low-medium cost units since taking over in 2008.

This is in stark contrast with the merely 5,100 units of affordable housing built by the previous administration from 1999 to 2007.

“We have outperformed them by building five times more,” he said.

For now, 17,000 units of various types ranging in cost from RM42,000 to RM300,000 were being built across the state.

Apart from this, there are 32,000 units more that have been approved but have yet to be built.

Overall, these figures when added up will bring the total to more than 70,000 affordable units under the current state government.

“This is the stock of affordable housing for prices of not more than RM300,000 that we have,” he said.

“We have performed the best in providing affordable housing among all the states in the country.”

He said a lot of incentives have been given to developers looking to build affordable units.

“Don’t simply make one general statement and make it look like all properties in Penang are expensive,” he said during a press conference.

Isham, who is also a special officer to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, had stated in his comments that there has been a significant increase in property tax revenues collected by the Penang and Selangor governments as home buyers were supposedly taxed about ten to 20 times higher compared to previous Barisan Nasional administrations.

On a separate matter, Jagdeep called on the federal government to address the issue of housing loan rejections by financial institutions.

He urged Putrajaya to provide an amicable solution to this as many home buyers cannot purchase affordable homes without financial assistance.

Earlier, Jagdeep, Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh and Paya Terubong assemblyman Yeoh Soon Hin inspected medium-cost flats in Paya Terubong.

He also asked for the Federal Maintenance Fund to be approved after many applications were submitted by the local authorities, hoping an answer would be provided before Chinese New Year next month.