National Affordable Housing Programmes

In recent years, numerous affordable housing programmes have been introduced by the Malaysian government such as “Perumahan Rakyat 1 Malaysia” (PR1MA), Rent-to-Own (RTO), and MyHome, to name a few. However, Malaysia is still experiencing undersupply of affordable houses, particularly among a low-income group “B40”. 

 

In the past, affordable properties often being associated with poor quality standards and residential satisfaction, intensified economic segregation, concentrated crime and poverty. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gives ideas to the government on the problems, and thus, tabled a “People’s Budget” that grants exclusively to the B40 group. Since 2018, the Minister of Housing and Local Government has initiated the National Affordable Housing Policy (NAHP) to solve the affordability issue. Under this policy, approved projects have to allocate at least 30% of affordable houses and not less than 30% to Bumiputera. 

 

Given these points, the developers will need to meet the minimum standard of quality such as the material used, facilities, and safety, together with the ceiling price set by the government. Seeing that, focusing its focal point on the supply of affordable houses and quality of life could stimulate demands in the market. A study has found a strong negative correlation between the harmonious community with crime rates and the number of dropouts from schools. Hence, affordable housing gives a steady demand for investment, backed by the government which removes specific risks and widens RTO campaigns. Nevertheless, low space standards, poor quality of construction, and high maintenance costs are still ongoing problems, however, the government has gone an extra mile by relocating 395 residences to new apartments free of charge.

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