HOUSE PRICES IN THE STATE ALARMINGLY HIGH

House prices in the state alarmingly high

KOTA KINABALU 29 Jan 2012: Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Edward Yong Oui Fah said the State Government under the leadership of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman is very concerned with all the house prices in the state.

And the government wants to find out how to lower down the house prices so that the younger generation can have the opportunity to own a house, he said.

“Now even if you have RM3,000 salary a month, you are still unable to take up a loan of RM200,000 and even to service a loan ofRM150,000 is not easy,”

he said on the governments move to implement the 30 per cent of affordable housing policy in the state.

“So affordable house means that ‘you can buy it’ even though if you have more than RM3000-RM5000 of disposable income but cannot even afford to service a loan of RM150,000 that is not affordable,” stated Edward.

“So the prices is there already but the mechanism of how to go about it with the bank and financial institutes, that is the one we have to look into it,” he said.

He said this after jointly launching the Palm Condominium show unit together with WSG Development Sdn Bhd, managing director Datuk Susan Wong Siew Guen and other guests in conjunction with a Chinese New Year luncheon.

“Of course, the house prices are contributed by the inflated land cost in the city and urban areas.

“But the house prices could be lowered in the suburban areas such as Kinarut, Kawang and Papar as the land cost are not that expensive and the building materials such as sand and stones can be obtained from nearby.

“So the prices can go down, we have to look into the developer how to actually lower down the price to benefit the people,” he said.

Edward concurred with the suggestion made by Susan, who is the president of the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association that they could work out a scheme for example if developers have projects in the city centre; they are allowed to fulfill the 30 per cent affordable house quota in the outskirt areas such as Kinarut or Tuaran.

This is because of land scarcity in the city now what more to build affordable housing price between RM150,000 to RM250,000.

Furthermore, Edward said it will be unfair to ask developers to meet the 30 per cent affordable housing requirement in the city which is not profitable.

“So one of the options is to ask developers to just compensate it and how to do it, I think we have to work it out with Shareda as to how to go about it so that we can come up with a win-win solution for the benefit of the future generation,” he stated.

Beside the private developers, Edward said the government through the Town and Housing Development Board should also identify suitable areas to build houses below the cost of RM150,000 for the low income group.

On top of that, he said the federal government will also carry out the people housing project with three rooms for those who cannot afford to buy a house and only receiving a salary enough to pay for the monthly rental of between RM150 and RM160.

“The government is trying their best to help the people otherwise the young generation will lose out. That is why we thanked Shareda led by Datuk Susan Wong for working closely with the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to address the problems,” said Edward.