Affordable housing: Johor plans PR1MA homes for middle-income earners

KOTA TINGGI (Jan 11): The Johor state government will launch a housing programme for middle-income earners to ensure all strata of society own a home. Middle-income earners currently fall between two stools, earning too much to qualify for a low-cost home and not quite or just enough to buy one on the new or secondary markets.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the state government would discuss the plan with Perbadanan Perumahan 1Malaysia (PR1MA), with the aim of launching in three months.

"We will then also indicate the number of units and where it would be built," he added. Khaled said he hoped each unit could be sold for less than RM300,000.

"The state government has all this time been focusing on affordable homes priced under RM150,000.

"The time has come for us to see to the housing needs of the middle-income group," he added.

Khaled said this after launching the Johor Affordable Homes Project and opening the building for the Rumah Kelab Komuniti Taman Desaru Utama, in Kota Tinggi yesterday.

In LUMUT, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir urged all housing developers involved in the construction of affordable homes to take the projects seriously.

He said this was because there was a risk of the projects being abandoned by poorly run and ailing developers..

Zambry said the state government had taken the initiative to work with the housing developers to provide housing on state-owned land to help the less fortunate.

"The price of the houses has to be within the affordable range, depending on the location. If the area is more developed, the company may raise the price a little higher, but it must be within the stipulated range," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a Perak government quarters in Lumut Kiri, in Lumut yesterday.

On the RM25 million project, Zambry said the 10-storey building, with 100 housing units, was scheduled to be completed within 18 months.