KUALA LUMPUR – As many as 50% or 17,543 buyers of 1Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA) projects nationwide are young people, aged 25 to 35, as of December last year.
Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said that last year, 34% or 1,904 PR1MA home buyers were from this group.
“This proves that the PR1MA homes’ offer price is a favourite among young people and they can afford it,” he said during Question Time at the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this in his reply to a question from Datuk Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (Sabak Bernam-Bersatu) who wanted the housing and local government minister to state to what extent it had succeeded in providing affordable housing projects, especially for young people, aged 25 to 35, and their response to the PR1MA housing projects, nationwide.
Apart from that, he said PR1MA would also introduce the Youth Home Ownership initiative which aimed to increase PR1MA homeownership among young people from 50.3% to 70% by the end of 2022.
Reezal said his ministry was planning to provide Youth Transit Housing (RTB) in several locations in the Klang Valley following high house prices and rental rates in the area to help young people own homes.
“A total of two RTB projects have been proposed in Mukim Batu, Kuala Lumpur and one project in Rawang, Selangor. The Mukim Batu RTB project in Kuala Lumpur will develop a total of 1,400 units, and for the Rawang RTB in Selangor a total of 3,000 units will be built.
“The Housing and Local Government Ministry’s big agenda on housing will focus on the ‘5K’ concept, namely availability, affordability, financing facilities, quality, and livability in housing units. I believe this is also the desire of the young generation in Malaysia as a whole,” he said.
Answering Fasiah’s supplementary question on the proposed establishment of a national housing fund and to what extent PR1MA housing developers can provide infrastructure such as internet technology and parking facilities, Reezal said all facilities were taken into account according to the “5K” concept.
“The proposed national housing fund is a matter I am looking into together with the panel of experts established under the ministry. We will formulate a new proposal to adopt (this proposal) in order to be convincing, and be subsequently approved by Bank Negara and Finance Ministry.
“The affordable housing units under PR1MA are equipped with fibre-to-the-unit and all the units have internet access infrastructure. We do not want to see the houses for B40 people have low livability,” he said.
In his reply to a question from Wong Hon Wai (Bukit Bendera-PH) on the government’s allocation to implement the RTB and its expansion to Penang and Johor Baru this year, Reezal said there were plans in place to expand the initiative.
“Currently, as mentioned, this RTB is in the Klang Valley, but RTBs are also beginning to be held in other states; in Johor, for example.” – Bernama, March 8, 2022
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