KUALA LUMPUR – The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (Acccim) has proposed that the government plan new townships primarily for social reasons and affordable housing rental.
In a statement today, the association said the new townships should be of adequate size to create a sustainable township ecosystem that would attract industries, commercial activities, and generate employment opportunities for residents.
“Planned with public transportation connectivity and community services, residents of these new towns will also be able to seek employment farther afield,” it said.
Acccim made the proposal following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s recent call to review the current affordable housing policy.
It said the review has been long overdue as the delivery of affordable housing has caused free-market and middle-income housing to become unaffordable.
“If this situation is not addressed, both affordable housing and free-market housing construction will be stymied, leading to housing delivery falling below population growth and aggravating shortages.
“This would steer higher escalation of house prices and also the shortage of rental housing and exorbitant rentals, leading to the homelessness in many supposedly developed countries and global cities,” it said.
Acccim said the current practice of allowing such highly subsidised houses to be sold to monetise the subsidy for windfall profits would create an insatiable appetite for these highly subsidised houses, and the principle that one should not profit from a charity has been totally exploited.
The association added that the notion that property developers bear the subsidy is incorrect as it is passed through in the pricing of the free-market middle-income houses.
“The most unfair and inequitable outcome is that middle-income house buyers carry the subsidy in unnecessarily higher middle-income house prices.
“Middle-income house prices have breached affordability levels, and many in this stratum are not able to own their dream homes,” it said. – Bernama, June 3, 2023
