KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 5): The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is drawing up the policy for the Residential Tenancies Act to control the price of houses in the country, said its minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (pictured).

She said this would take into account the interests of the landlord and the tenant, as well as ensure that the landowner did not simply increase rental or evict the tenant.

“This is one of the ways to control rental rates in the country,” she said when winding-up the debate on the motion of thanks for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's royal address at the Dewan Rakyat here on Tuesday.

Commenting on the the Affordable Housing Policy, Zuraida said the ministry plans to build homes only for rental and may give exemptions to the poor so that they can continue to rent these homes until their (financial) situation stabilises.

“At present, the ministry has a scheme for purchasing, renting, and Rent-To-Own (RTO) but in future, the ministry, with the Affordable Homes Policy, will only build houses for rental...so this is one of the innovations by the ministry in the issue of housing for the B40 and M40 groups,” she said.

On the Auditor-General’s Report in July, Zuraida did not deny that there were several technical and administrative issues regarding her ministry.

“I do not deny that it should be improved, monitored and its management changed. However, there are also issues which affect its implementation, resulting in delays and such.

“There are nine housing projects which were brought up in the audit, but the ministry has completed 342 housing projects...(but the ministry) has taken note of the comments in the audit report and we will improve on them,” she said, adding that the weakness was at the contract administration stage.

The media has reported the process of RTO public housing for the poor and low-income group took up to 40 months as it was not properly managed.

According to the National Auditor-General Report 2018 Series 3, although the RTO project was completed within the stipulated time, the ministry took up to 866 days to hand over the completed project.

 

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