Sarawak expects to get fair share of affordable houses

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SIBU: Assistant Housing Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah expressed optimism that Sarawak will set a fair share of the 223,000 affordable houses planned for 2014.

“The provision of affordable houses has been ongoing by the present state and federal BN governments all these years and 2014 is not an exception,” Abdul Karim, who is Assistant Minister of Youth Development and Asajaya assemblyman told The Borneo Post yesterday.

He was reacting to Sarawak Division Cuepacs secretary Ahmad Malie’s call for fair allocations of the 223,000 affordable houses announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak under Budget 2014.

Malie said doing so could make it easier for the people, including civil servants to buy their own houses.

He added that the result of the escalating prices of houses, particularly in Kuching, Bintulu and Miri, was that people especially those in the public sector could no longer afford them.

Malie said Najib should look into this problem as there were many people desperate for their own homes because house rentals were also going up.

“The state Housing Ministry is aware of the spiralling cost of houses which is due to increased demand and increased cost of building materials and is cushioning this increase by building more affordable houses especially in areas where the demand for houses are higher,” said Abdul Karim.

Earlier, he said the building of 223,000 affordable housing units by the government and private sector next year would help stabilise the prices of house in the market.

He said this was BN’s commitment to providing one million affordable homes in five years as pledged in its election manifesto.

More affordable homes were also in the pipeline for 2014 and with more such houses by the government and private sector through its mandatory CSR initiative, it was hoped that more people would be able to own a house, he said.