SPNB to deliver 10,000 homes
Houses to be completed this year under the 1Malaysia People-friendly Home
KUALALUMPUR: Syarikat perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB) is focusing on delivering 10,000 houses this year under the 1Malaysia People-friendly Home (RMR1M) programme.
Managing director Datuk Kamarul Rashdan Salleh said there were 14,000 applicants under the programme, which was developed to help low-income earners, such as fishermen and farmers, who own a piece of land.
To qualify, household income of applicants must not exceed RM3,000 per month. Other conditions include not having a house or living in an old, incomplete or dilapidated house.
SPNB, a unit of Minister of Finance Inc, was set up in 1997 to provide affordable housing in accordance with the national housing objective.
Kamarul said about 3,200 RMR1M units had begun on-site works and 700 had been completed. Such units take two to three months to be completed, using the industrialised building system.
He said the Government had allocated RM200mil subsidy for buyers of the RMR1M units, which is priced at RM65,000 each. “This means each of the 10,000 RMR1M units get a RM20,000 subsidy. So, a buyer only needs to raise RM45,000.”
On the rehabilitation of abandoned housings, Kamarul said that to date, SPNB had completed 85 projects involving 25,283 units with investments of RM613mil. “We are in the process of rehabilitating seven abandoned projects involving 3,109 units with the cost of RM244mil.”
Kamarul explained that in 2010, the Government had decided that the responsibility of rehabilitating abandoned housing projects in Malaysia would be taken over by the National Housing Department.
Meanwhile, SPNB had seen brisk sales for houses under its Rumah Mampu Milik (affordable housing) programme in the last three years. “Last year, we sold almost 10,000 units,” said Kamarul.
Since 2008, total sales under the affordable housing programme totalled 14,326 units, with a gross development value of RM1.56bil.
However, SPNB still has close to 4,000 unsold units under the affordable housing programme.
Kamarul said about 15% of the 26,376 affordable houses built since 2003 was still unsold or in the process of being sold. “We are putting on hold new affordable housing schemes as we want to sell the remaining units first.”