KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — The Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) is developing a big data analytics platform that will be opened to private developers to improve housing planning and address the mismatch between housing supply and market demand.
Minister Nga Kor Ming said developers would be able to subscribe to the platform, enabling feasibility studies to be based on data and market demand rather than assumptions, as part of the ministry’s digital transformation efforts to create a more sustainable housing market.
“Once it’s fully implemented, we are going to open up to the private sector, so that the private sector can actually subscribe to the system… When all the developers come up with a scheme, their feasibility studies will be data-driven,” he said during the AREC Forum 2026: Rethinking Real Estate: Housing With Hearts here, today.
Nga said the platform would help address the mismatch between the types of homes being built and those required by the market, noting that Malaysia’s housing sector did not face a shortage of supply but rather a mismatch between available housing products and buyers’ needs.
The initiative, he said, complemented measures already introduced by the ministry to improve housing accessibility, including the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme (SJKP), which has helped more than 95,000 homebuyers obtain financing.
Nga said KPKT is also studying the housing needs of the M40 income group to ensure future housing products better match market demand.
At the same time, he said KPKT had also established a special task force, chaired by the ministry’s secretary-general, to review compliance costs imposed on developers, with the aim of streamlining requirements while safeguarding public interests.
“Reducing unnecessary compliance costs would help improve project viability without compromising safety and regulatory standards.
“We have to safeguard the public interest. At the same time, we also have to make sure that the private sector is commercially viable,” he said.
On urban development, Nga said transit-oriented developments (TOD) could eventually be designed without parking bays in areas with comprehensive public transport networks, which would lower construction costs and make housing more affordable.
He stressed, however, that such an approach could only be implemented once the country’s public transport system was sufficiently developed.
The forum was moderated by the executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Datuk Seri Dr Maimunah Mohd Sharif. — Bernama
