THE condition that homebuyers in Penang must be registered voters only applies to purchasers of low cost, low medium cost and affordable housing, said state exco for housing Jagdeep Singh Deo.

Jagdeep said the condition was set to ensure only eligible Penangites could gain access to public affordable housing in the state.

“The Penang state government will continue to impose the condition that low cost, low medium cost and affordable housing units are to be prioritised, not only in terms of stock, but also in terms of delivery to Penangites first,” he said in a statement today.

He said it was misleading to say that the said condition applied to all properties.

He was responding to a statement by Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday who said the Penang government had imposed “odd requirements” for home buyers in the state, such as the need to be registered as a voter to be able to purchase a house.

Jagdeep also said the state government will continue to ensure adequate affordable housing is delivered for the people of Penang.

“To date, 75,631 of low cost, low medium cost and various types of affordable housing have been built (25,555), are being built (19,828) and have been approved to be built (29,978).

“This is unlike the federal government that during the period of 1999 to 2007 only managed to deliver some 5,154 of low and low medium cost housing, and to date has failed to physically complete yet even one unit of PR1MA,” he said, challenging the prime minister to verify that there are 4,652 units of affordable homes being built by PR1MA.

He also called upon Najib to reconsider the federal government’s decision to allow the ceiling price of low cost housing to be increased from RM42,000 to RM60,000 and low medium cost housing from RM72,500 to RM100,000.

“As it is, the lower income group cannot even access these housing due to the extremely high loan rejection rate by banks, what more if you increase the prices of such low and low medium cost units?” he said. – March 25, 2018.