PENANG (April 1): Penang exco Jagdeep Singh Deo said he has the figures to show that price hikes in normal housing, due to developers having to comply with affordable housing units, are not more than 5%.

"In order to build one unit that is 600 to 700sq ft, the developer has to fork out RM120k for actual construction cost. They lose money straight away but if I do not impose such conditions, who will build the low- and low-medium-cost (LMC) units?" the state Local Government Housing Committee chairperson asked.

"No one will because all they see is dollars and cents, they all want to make money, so they say, in that case, I will make my normal housing price higher," Jagdeep was reported saying by Malaysia Kini today.

"Developers make a lot of money and they do not like me very much as I am the one who imposed such a clause, which requires them to build low- (RM42,000) and low-medium-cost (RM72,500) houses," he said in his talk during a workshop on "Understanding and Addressing Housing Issues" in Penang yesterday.

Penang has a strict compliance clause for developers to build 30% of public housing (PPR) units, Jagdeep pointed out.

However, developers which agree to build 100% affordable housing projects (units priced RM300,000 and below) can be exempted from the requirement, he explained.

"This is how I compromise. I asked them if they can do it (build 100% affordable units) and they said yes, because at the end of the day, the category who purchase houses the most are those in the affordable housing category, " elaborated Jagdeep, who is also DAP's Dato Keramat assembly person.

"If developers do not come on board to build affordable housing, those luxurious ones will not be sold as most people simply cannot afford it," he reasoned.  

He added cooling measures implemented since 2014 will continue, but “the state is willing to ease developers burden when they fall on hard times”.

Jagdeep highlighted Pakatan Harapan's GE14 promise to build 76,000 units of affordable housing in the state has been met. There are currently 19 housing projects of this category and six have been completed.

"Currently, we have exceeded expectation as we have built and are in the process of building 101,163 units of affordable homes," he said.

On March 8, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin announced that sites in Gelugor, Teluk Kumbar and Balik Pulau have been allocated for public housing projects.

In the event organised by the People's Housing Network, a coalition of local NGOs including Aliran, Suaram and PSM, Lim Chee Han (above), co-founder of Agora Society Malaysia reminded the state to listen to the people's views on what kind of housing they need to achieve a win-win situation.

"On the supply side, the government needs to have a land bank where they can give developers some kind of incentive to build a desirable public housing project which has a desirable cost range," Lim posited.

"The government has a role to invest in social housing. They can do it more effectively with proper data to show which type of housing is needed in certain areas.

"An integrated data base on housing is important, it is also a requirement in our national housing policy where urban planning must be based on evidence," he stressed.

Aliran president Prema Devaraj urged the state to look into the diversified needs of public housing residents. Accessibility to schools, general hospitals and public transportion should be given priority.

"They are often ill people and senior citizens who need care in such social housing units, and children who lack recreational spaces at home that they have to go out and play while exposing themselves to all kinds of dangers," she told the 50 over attendees.

"Social housing units often comes with small kitchens and lack of space to do or hang the laundry, the spaces need cleaning up very often as they are congested, and mostly women spend their time cleaning up that they do not have time to join meetings to discuss about their housing needs, " Prema added.

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