Sep 15, 2011
Central clearing house vital to prevent abuse
PETALING JAYA: There is a need to establish a central clearing house to sell or rent social and affordable housing so as to ensure subsidised housing units are allocated to the targeted groups, Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) patron Datuk Eddy Chen said.
Chen, who made this proposal at the 14th National Housing and Property Summit yesterday, said having this central agency, which is akin to Singapore’s Housing Development Board, would be able to weed out speculative activities and prevent abuse of such housing units. The two-day summit is organised by Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.
To ensure the agency will be effective, it needs to have a good centralised computer trekking system with the allocation of the units based on a means testing method to ascertain eligibility for such housing.
According to Chen, the country needs at least 50,000 to 60,000 affordable houses that are priced between RM150,000 and RM250,000 a year but there is still a shortfall in terms of supply for such housing.
“The piecemeal approach towards the country’s affordable housing programme has not worked out and it is time to adopt a more holistic and integrated approach to ensure its efficacy. This central agency can come under the purview of the National Housing Department under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government,” he added.
The provision of affordable housing should be well planned and located near public transport, accessibility and other amenities.
“The Government’s affordable quality housing programme (Prima) is a good concept, and to move it forward a proper policy framework needs to be in place based on an open tender basis (where government land is involved) to allow more room for innovative approach, and with government infrastructure provided for developers building affordable houses on private land,” Chen said.
Stressing that the delivery of affordable housing should be the focus of government given that land is scarce and only government land is available in areas feasible for affordable zoning, he said: “Government agencies should concentrate on development of affordable houses and should not compete with private developers in the development of other market driven products.”
Chen said development by private developers should be market driven and it was necessary to review the bumiputra quota and discount, and house buyers including bumiputras should be free to decide where they want to live.
“Socialisation is usually not only where we live, but at the work place, schools, university and through sports activities,” he added.
In view of rising cost of construction, Chen said the price of low-cost housing should be allowed to increase based on the rise in the consumer price index.
Chen said many of the policy issues involving the National Housing Policy required a more synchronised and integrated approach between the various political parties, the federal, state and local governments, and the relevant agencies.
He said political intervention had in many ways distorted the demand and supply of houses resulting in a misallocation and waste of scarce resources including financial, labour, materials and land.
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