GEORGE TOWN, Feb 8 — The Penang government wants Putrajaya to build 1Malaysia Public Housing Project (PPA1M) units for the civil servants here, as not a single unit has been built in the state so far.

Penang state executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo said the federal government has submitted two applications to build PPA1M units in Penang but the state authorities had to reject these applications.

"This is because the applications did not comply with state housing guidelines, one was on land 160 metres above sea level while another was on land without proper access,” he said.

The housing development committee chairman told Putrajaya to submit fresh applications to build PPA1M that comply with the state’s housing regulations.

"We welcome applications to build PPA1M for civil servants here,” he said.

Due to the lack of PPA1M units in Penang, Jagdeep said the state’s Selection Process Enhancement Committee (SPEC) decided to give priority to civil servants during its selection process for the state’s affordable housing units.

"Since August 2013, some 4,484 offers have been made to civil servants in Penang for various types of affordable housing,” he said.

However, out of the 4,484 applicants, only 1,310 applicants have successfully signed up for the units, which is only 29.2 per cent of the units offered.

"This means there is about 70 per cent of them who were unable to sign up for the units due to rejection of their bank loan application,” he said.

He said this clearly showed that high rejection rate of bank loan applications is still an issue for many house buyers.

"This issue needs to be settled immediately as it has long been outstanding and I hope the Prime Minister and Bank Negara Malaysia can convene an urgent meeting soon to address this issue,” he said.

Jagdeep said he had requested that this issue be addressed numerous times but it was in vain.

Early last year, the Pakatan Harapan state government and the Barisan Nasional Opposition front signed a joint motion to the Prime Minister and Bank Negara Malaysia to address the issue but there was no response to the motion.

"I have written to the Penang State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang to issue a reminder to both the Prime Minister and Bank Negara Malaysia to hold an urgent meeting to address this issue in the presence of all housing excos in the country,” he said.