Housing and Local Govt Ministry to set up online platform for govt affordable housing

PUTRAJAYA (May 28): The Housing and Local Government Ministry is looking into setting up a one-stop online platform for government affordable housing that would enable applicants to submit their applications online and find out their approval status within days.

The newly-minted Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the online platform will increase the efficiency of purchasers’ selection as well as make the overall process transparent to the public.

For now, there are several government affordable housing schemes requiring different documents to be submitted to the respective government agencies or state government by hand, while there is no proper system for the applicants to check the approval status.

“I’m giving them [the team] six months to get the platform ready. With online submission, it means no more hassle in submitting hard-copy forms and documents to different government agencies,” Zuraida told EdgeProp.my during a face-to-face interview today.

However, for some isolated cases where people need help or face difficulties accessing the internet, she said there will be assistance provided by the ministry to help them for submission.

This is also one of the efforts initiated by Zuraida to synchronise existing public affordable housing schemes — including PR1MA and People’s Housing Project — under one programme to avoid overlaps of resources.

She noted that the ministry will propose to the Cabinet for it to undertake the role of the National Affordable Housing Council to effectively handle all the matters related to affordable housing.

“By putting all schemes under one roof, we could review and resolve the problems effectively and make sure we deliver our promises to the rakyat,” she said.

“However, the plan [to put the schemes under one roof] is still pending the Cabinet’s approval — the soonest will be within six months.”

On her earlier proposal of local government mayor elections, Zuraida noted that she will visit all the states’ executive council to explain her ideas and to understand local housing issues before finalising a holistic plan to handle the problems.