KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today urged all parties, including the state governments, to be mutually responsible for realising the One Million Affordable Homes agenda and not only rely on the Federal Government.
He said all parties should fulfil their commitments, especially in terms of providing land to carry out housing development.
“Similarly, private developers should also cooperate and be prepared to invest in housing development for the rakyat.
“Housing industry players also have the opportunity to invest in new housing construction technology, as there is already a factory producing affordable housing building materials that enable speedy construction,” he said when launching the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2019 expo here today.
HOC is a collaborative initiative between the government and the private sector to expand and coordinate people’s access to affordable housing as well as addressing the issue of affordability towards home ownership.
Also present at the HOC 2019 expo launching ceremony were Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.
The prime minister said based on National Property Information Centre data, the number of unsold residential units — including houses, serviced apartments and small-office/ home-office (SOHO) units — totalled 40,916 units valued at RM27.28 billion in the third quarter of 2018.
“The government hopes through the expo, most of these unsold units can be matched with the right buyers who seek to become home owners, hence spurring residential property trading activities as well as the country’s economic growth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said the progress of any country had no meaning if its people still lived in dilapidated houses that did not meet even the minimum housing standards.
Therefore, he said, the Pakatan Harapan government was committed to ensure the availability of sufficient houses, in line with the recently-launched National Housing Policy 2.0.
“The government is well aware that housing prices are not like before. Low-cost houses were previously priced about RM25,000 but today, the price of the same houses can reach RM130,000 or more.
“This shows that the value of houses, even originally low-cost houses, has increased,” he added. — Bernama
