GEORGE TOWN, June 19 — The Penang government will focus on the rent-to-own (RTO) scheme to help more people in the state own a house.

State Housing, Local Government, Town, and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the Penang government targeted to build 180,000 affordable housing units by 2030 and 10 per cent of the total number would be placed under the RTO scheme.

"To date, 2,474 units are on the list. I welcome the participation of other developers especially government-linked companies (GLC) to offer RTO scheme in their housing projects,” he told reporters after chairing the Selection Process Enhancement Committee (SPEC) meeting here yesterday.

Jagdeep said so far 105, 719 units of affordable housing were being monitored, of which 30,191 have been completed, 24,096 units were under construction while 51,432 units were at the planning process.

Earlier, in a separate press conference at Wadda Gurdwara Sahib here, Jagdeep said the recovery movement control order standard operating procedures (SOPs) compliance in Penang has been satisfactory.

"On the island, the Penang Island City Council inspected 163,865 which saw 99.6 per cent compliance while on the mainland a check on 279,774 premises by the Seberang Perai City Council found 99.24 per cent compliance.

"The 128 barber shops inspected on the island adhered fully to the SOPs,” he said. — Bernama