THE 1Malaysia People’s Housing (PR1MA) scheme has awarded more than RM15 billion worth of contracts to 574 Bumiputera firms, Prime Minister Najib Razak said.

The contracts were awarded to developers, contractors, consultants under the Bumiputera agenda, Najib said. 

“To ensure that the PR1MA is sustainable, the government has approved RM3.9 billion in allocation for the projects.

“The programme needs the extra liquidity, so I give my assurance that PR1MA will always have enough funds,” Najib said during the Rakan Bumiputera PR1MA programme at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre.

Najib said the aim is to open up opportunities for Bumiputera vendors and for Malaysians to be able to afford quality homes.

“We are not only looking at Malay reserve land but we want to ensure that the land value where the houses are built appreciates in the future.

“I also want the houses to be sold 20% to 30% below the market value. In Kuala Ketir, Sg Petani, the PR1MA houses are priced at RM235,000 but private developers price the houses at RM290,000. The PR1MA houses are much better.”

PR1MA chief executive officer Abdul Mutalib Alias said PR1MA is a catalyst for Bumiputera entrepreneurs.

“We feel that the programme is a game-changer not only for the housing sector but the economy.

“We currently have 1,800 Bumiputera vendors from all sectors.”

Mutalib said PR1MA, to date, has 61 projects in the pipeline with a total of 53,062 units on Malay reserve land nationwide.

“Before this, the value of the Malay reserve land was RM1.2 billion but because of the projects, the value of the land has gone up more than 10 times to RM13 billion,” he said.

To date PR1MA has approved 267,902 units nationwide, of which 139,393 are in various stages of construction. – August 16, 2017.