Sheda Miri chairman: Address affordable housing issues, AP policy in Budget 2023

James Hii

MIRI (Feb 10): Property developers here hope that the federal government will allocate additional funds in Budget 2023 for affordable housing to cater to the needs of the low and middle income groups.

Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association (Sheda) Miri branch chairman James Hii Sing Lung in an interview with The Borneo Post here yesterday, viewed the housing affordability as a serious issue that needs to be highlighted in the national budget next month.

“On the coming national budget, through the Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT), I think the most important thing is to allocate more budgets for affordable housing to cater to the needs of the B40 and M40 categories,” he said.

“This is most important because at the moment every state or even nationwide, we are still facing very serious affordable housing shortage issue.

“When the labour and material costs keep hiking due to the drop of currency or due to the market fluctuation, the affordability or chances for the rakyat to own a house becomes more challenging and difficult,” he said.

On the progress of the building and construction industry in the post-Covid-19 period, Hii noted that the reopening of the economy and the influx of visitors or tourists have repositioned Malaysia on a quicker recovery path and also enabled speedy recovery for most sectors.

“Furthermore, with the new federal unity government, we hope that the political and economic stability can bring in more investors, and we hope that this year will be better than last year,” he said.

On the contrary, the bureaucracy and red tape in the approved permit (AP) policy for labour, Hii said, still poses challenges to the overall market to bring in or recruit foreign labour, thus, causing labour shortage.

“So, without these labour, the progress towards production in the manufacturing or construction industry will definitely be affected.

“With this new government, we hope that they can collaborate and streamline the overall process and quickly address the labour shortage issues,” he stressed.

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