KL housing projects must now include affordable homes, says PM

Updated 3 years ago · Published on 6 Jun 2023 2:19PM · 1 Comments

Kuala Lumpur City Hall receives more than 3,000 applications for the People’s Housing Project in a year but is only able to offer 300 units per year. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, June 6, 2023.

THE construction of affordable homes or People’s Housing Projects (PPR) will be made compulsory in the development of housing projects in Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said.

He said the government’s aim of providing more affordable homes for the people had not been achieved, hence the need to set such a condition on housing developers so the needs of the poor would be met.

Anwar said housing is considered a serious problem in the federal capital, with 3,000 applications for PPR received in a year, while the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) was only able to offer 300 units per year.

“We are making the changes now. (In a meeting that I chaired two months ago) to not approve any housing project (in Kuala Lumpur) if the projects by the developers do not include affordable housing units or PPR in the same project,” he added.

“Regarding the strict conditions imposed by DBKL for PPR application, I have asked DBKL to make some adjustments,” he said during the Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a question from Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang-PH) on whether the government was aware of the strict conditions for renting a DBKL PPR unit.

Meanwhile, in response to a supplementary question from Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah (Langkawi-PN) on whether there were overlapping roles among the various housing agencies, Anwar said the government had established a cabinet committee to standardise the agencies concerned and placed them under the two deputy prime ministers.

“Our tendency before was when there was a problem, an agency would be set up, and when another problem cropped up, another agency would be set up, but the job was the same. Now, we bring all these agencies together and coordinate them so that the housing programmes for the people do not overlap,” he said. – Bernama, June 6, 2023.

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  • If I may, humbly and with noble intentions, suggest to the government this: Do not give the discounts for bumi buyers in places where the houses exceed a certain amount, eg RM800K and above. People who can afford to buy these houses at these prices are not in the B40 or even the M40. The savings in the subsidy abolishment will allow developers to build more affordable homes for the B40 and M40 at a cheaper rate. This government is working toward abolishing susbisdies for the T20, and I think most people support this initiative, including many from the T20 also who understand this move by the givernment in managing diminishing resources. Stop the discount given to the rich buyers buying expensive home, the discounts being subsidied by the non-bumi buyers and not the government. Not that the non bumi buyers mind this subsidy borne by them (they have accepted this pratice since it was implemented so many decades ago), but certainly we do mind subsidising people who are probably richer than us. For us to subsidize the B40 and M40, we feel good that we can play our part.. I know of people eligible for these discounts speculating on home with the advantage of the discounts they get.

    Posted 3 years ago by Brave Malaysian · Reply