Low-cost houses are priced between RM50,000 and RM59,000 but the qualification to purchase the houses is limited to married couples with a combine household income of RM3,000 and below.
Sheda president Joseph Wong Kee Liong said according to data received, 30% to 40% of the public were not qualified to buy the low-cost houses because of their marital status and income level of above RM3,000.
However, they are also not able to afford purchasing a normal-priced house in the market.
15 May 2015 - “I would like to emphasise that low-cost houses and affordable houses are different things. Low-cost houses are for people with income of RM3,000 and below. We should create a category for those people who cannot qualify for the low-cost houses,” said Wong.
He said Sheda was proposing to work with the housing ministry and state government to build affordable houses to cater to the market at the price of not more than RM250,000 per unit for intermediate units. This type of houses are in good demand and people who earn between RM4,000 and RM5,000 are in need of the houses.
A few requests have been proposed to the state government regarding the policy change to allow the plans to be implemented by the developers. Among the suggestions offered are reducing the setback by 3m from 9m to 6m, removing density requirement to be able to put more unit per acre in a land, using plot ratio for high rise and residential development, developers are waived from building low-cost houses and removal of the 16 low-cost housing requirements.
Due to the hefty price of a piece of land in the city area, the only way to implement the affordable housing is to develop apartment units.
Wong told reporters that if developers built these houses, which were medium cost, it was helping the public as part of the corporate social responsibility plan. Thus, low-cost houses should not be implemented for these kinds of housing development.
Sheda is trying to find out where is the demand of these types of purchasers by creating a website to encourage the public who are not qualified for the low-cost house but cannot afford a normal-priced house to register with them. Upon successful implementation of the affordable housing, the registered party will be given priority to buy the houses.
“We are targeting 10,000 units for five years for the whole of Sarawak,” said Wong when asked about Sheda’s target should the proposal to build affordable houses be accepted.
Sheda has approached some developers in Sarawak and they have shown keen interest.