Perak discusses with developers on ensuring affordable housing

 

IPOH (Jan 24): The Perak government always holds discussions with developers to ensure that the costs of building affordable houses are not too high so as to avoid burdening the people.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said the state government also provided suitable sites for affordable housing towards enabling the less privileged to own a house.

"We always discuss on how to assist housing developers reduce (construction) costs so that the houses built can be sold at a reasonable price.

"We care for the views of housing developers and from time to time, we think of initiatives to reduce the costs of building homes for the people,” he told reporters after chairing a state executive council meeting at Bangunan Perak Darul Ridzuan, here, yesterday.

Ahmad Faizal was asked to comment on the statement by Housing and Local Government Minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin who is studying two new proposals to raise people’s capacity to buy affordable houses, particularly for the B40 group, through the Top-up Fund and Build to Rent initiatives.

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Zuraida had said that if implemented, it would spur local property sale after the announcement of four initiatives by the government in Budget 2019 to enable more people to buy affordable homes.

She said through the Top-up Fund initiative, 10% of the housing loan could be obtained from the government at the interest rate of 2% with the loan period of 15 years, while the Build to Rent initiative involved building quality affordable homes, specifically for the rental market.

During the tabling of the Perak Budget 2019, Ahmad Faizal said the state government through the affordable housing initiative, had allocated RM71.7 million for the building of low-cost, medium-cost and affordable houses in the state.