Rising house prices push demand for affordable units, notes DCM

Dr Sim (second left) presents a memento to Abang Johari, as (from left) Abu Bakar, Wan Lizozman and Abang Abdul Rauf look on. — Penerangan photo

KUCHING (Feb 8): Rising house prices have resulted in an increase in demand for affordable housing, said Deputy Chief Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.

He said based on records from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), there were relatively high applications for houses in major cities such as Kuching and Miri.

“As at December last year, a total of 8,654 applicants in 27 districts across the state had applied for houses under HDC, with Kuching and Miri having topped the list with 3,788 and 1,542 applicants, respectively,” he said at the launch of the Housing Deposit Assistance Scheme (HDAS) here yesterday, where Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg officiated at the event.

Adding on Dr Sim, who is also Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government, said the HDC would build 2,323 houses, involving 42 physical projects and three non-physical projects under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

“This is to continue the state government’s mandate to build more houses for the low-income group,” he said.

Dr Sim said HDC’s commitment of providing quality affordable houses for the low-income group had been proven with the completion of housing projects under the 11th Malaysia Plan.

“A total of 1,441 units of houses under various programmes such as the Rumah Spektra Permata (RSP), Rumah Mampu Milik (RMM), and Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) have been completed.”

On HDAS, Dr Sim said the scheme, introduced by Abang Johari in October last year, would provide assistance of up to RM10,000 to first-time home owners under the B40 (low-income) and M40 (medium-income) categories for the payment of housing deposits.

“The scheme will be managed by Mutiara Mortgage & Credit Sdn Bhd (Mutiara), a wholly owned subsidiary of HDC,” he said, noting that Mutiara’s main function was to provide quality financial services and also to function as an affordable scheme to support those from the low-income group in terms of house ownership.

Also present at the event were Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah; respective Assistant Ministers I and II of Public Health, Housing and Local Government, Datu Dr Penguang Manggil and Michael Tiang; State Financial Secretary Dato Sri Dr Wan Lizozman Wan Omar, who is also Mutiara chairman; Deputy State Secretary (Socio Economic Transformation) Dato Sri Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki, and HDC chairman Datuk Dr Abang Abdul Rauf Abang Zen.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3B24Jsc
via IFTTT