Affordable houses in Malaysia Part 1

How wonderful it is to be in Malaysia now. One day the Federal government launched the PR1MA housing scheme labelled as affordable housing while the next day, the Selangor state government briefed a select few, including our legal firm, on an affordable housing scheme which is totally different in nature from the one launched by the Prime Minister.

I actually told a few people that this is the benefit of having competing political parties controlling different segment of the government (one holding the Malaysia Federal government's rein whilst another holding the rein of the richest state in Malaysia, Selangor). In my personal opinion, only a status quo will benefit Malaysians in general for the next general election. If the change is vice versa also may bring lots of benefit too.

Let us look at what are on offer for all Malaysians in term of affordable housing. I got an image to help with difference of affordable housing by the Federal government and by the state government, which was presented to me by a Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor senior officer when she briefed us on the differences during the Seminar Perumahan Mampu Milik Selangor 2011. 

 

As the picture cannot be viewed properly (and is written in Bahasa Malaysia), let me break down what is written on the slide there :

The difference of the 'Affordable Homes' proposal between the Selangor government and the Federal government :-

Selangor government

1. The household income is below RM5,000-00;

2. The price of the property is below RM120,000-00; and

3. The target group are : (a) Those below the age of 35;

                                        (b) Those in their golden age;

                                        (c) Disabled person;

                                        (d) Those who doesn't a house yet; and

                                        (e) Owners of 5 years old low-cost houses (RM42,000-00 and below)

Federal government

1. The household income is below RM6,000-00;

2. The price of the property is between RM220,000-00 and RM300,000-00; and

3. The target group are those who doesn't own a house yet.

So, in my opinion, there are not much difference between the two proposals. It must be noted that the Federal government already has a First Home Scheme which is priced between RM100,000-00 and RM220,000-00, hence the affordable homes for the Federal government being as such. Just that they seems to be a window of RM42,000-00 and RM100,000-00 which is not covered by the Federal government scheme.

It seems that the real winner here is the rakyat and the double winners here are those who live in Selangor. 

In my next blogpost about affordable home let us look at how did we reached the plateau for government to launch schemes such as seen above.