KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — A total of 1.24 million people have registered for ownership of affordable houses under the Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia programme, said its chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Mutalib Alias.

He said 90 per cent of the applicants were below the age of 40, unmarried single (47 per cent), married (49 per cent) and divorcee (four per cent).

Sixty-six per cent of the total applicants are Malay, Chinese (28 per cent) and Indian (six per cent), he said in his speech at the presentation of prizes to winners of the PR1MA-PAM (Malaysian Institute of Architects) Architecture Ideas Student Competition here today.

Also present was Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

Abdul Mutalib said as of early this year, the government had approved 23,380 units of PR1MA houses, while construction of 75,829 houses was in progress nationwide.

On the demand for PR1MA affordable houses, he said Selangor recorded the highest with 349,000 applicants, followed by Johor with 142,000 applicants.

“We are targeting to develop more ‘landed’ housing projects, as well as balance the construction of landed and high-density houses this year.

“Currently, 70 per cent of the houses under construction are high-density houses,” he added.

Meanwhile, Idris welcome such a competition as it provided an opportunity for architecture students to apply what they had learnt.

The competition is divided into three categories — PR1MA Landed House, PR1MA High Density Living and PR1MA Transit Oriented Development. — Bernama