PENAMPANG: Sabah Housing and Read Estate Developers Association (Shareda) will be constructing 10,000 units of affordable homes in Sabah over the next five years.
Its president, Francis Goh, said members of the association were willing to commit to the above number based on their success in constructing and selling such houses in the past.
He noted that 15,030 units of affordable homes costing below RM250,000 had been completed by Shareda members since 2010, with another 1,022 currently under progress and expected to be completed within this year.
“Due to the above evidence, the MLGH (Ministry of Local Government and Housing) was kind enough to accept our offer and retracted the implementation of the 30 per cent affordable home policy.
“The commitment to build 10,000 units of affordable homes under the proposed Shareda-MLGH initiative was derived after a thorough checking with our members that there will be 22 projects to be implemented,” he said during the Shareda Afternoon Talk on Affordable Homes Schemes in Sabah here yesterday.
He said the association was willing to make the commitment as it acknowledged the fact that lower income group earning less than RM2,500 per month were facing mounting difficulties in purchasing a house, which now normally sells at more than RM350,000 a unit.
He added that Shareda saw the commitment to build affordable homes as fulfilling its corporate social responsibility rather than profit motivated, despite marketing risk being a constant issue in such projects.
Including the units to be provided by Shareda, he said there would be almost 50,000 affordable homes to be built across the state in the coming years, including those to be constructed by government agencies such as Jabatan Perumahan Negara (JPN).
In view of the marketing risks, he suggested that all affordable home providers, both private and government, should group together and plan their approach as a team.
This way, he said, the players would know what projects and how many units were to be built and in which location, so as to avoid market competition, as well as standardize the necessary guidelines and market needs.
“For this reason, I have consulted and discussed with all key players such as Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB), Perumahan 1Malaysia Berhad (Prima) and JPN to join hands and collaborate with our MLGH, so that incidence where many completed affordable homes not being sold or occupied in West Malaysia will not happen here too,” he said.
Goh also informed that Shareda had proposed to the ministry to set up a special task force committee comprising industry players and related agencies to monitor overall progress, performance and speed of implementation of the affordable home projects in Sabah.
The committee should also assist developers and government-linked companies to expedite the approval of developments orders, as well as create some form of reward and recognition system for companies who assisted the government in building affordable homes.
“The task force shall also oversee the design, location, size and pricing of the projects, to fit the needs of the lower income group. Guidelines and requirements must be set properly to fit all developers without any conflict of interest,” he said.
Meanwhile, Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB) Sabah Regional Office head Mohd Hafiz Sua Abdullah in his talk informed that the company had so far completed seven projects in Sabah, with each consisting no less than 500 units of affordable homes.
Two more projects are currently in progress, namely Vista Minintod here and Taman Apas Permai in Tawau. One project, Taman Cendra Kasih in Kunak, is also in the pipeline and will provide over 600 units of single storey terrace houses.
Jabatan Perumahan Negara (JPN) deputy director general Datuk Mohamed Yusoff Ghazali in his session meanwhile said RM543 million would be provided for the department to implement 45 People’s Housing Programmes nationwide under Budget 2013.
The houses will be sold at a much lower prices compared to the current market, at RM40,000 to RM120,000 each.
He reported that the department had implemented 28 PHP projects in Sabah as of end of last month, involving a total 20,449 units of houses.
Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (Prima) vice president Muzafar Mohamed also delivered a talk, where he introduced the activities carried out by his organization.