Media Statement
Lower the price of low-cost houses and build more
We are disturbed to learn that housing developers in Penang want the state to gradually reduce the percentage of low-cost houses they are required to build. ('Builders want lower quota on low-cost' - The Star, 21 February 2001). The developers are arguing that the 30 per cent quota should not remain 'static' as they claim there are fewer needy people because of the country's economic progress.
We urge the state government not to reduce the quota. If at all there is less demand for low-cost houses today, it is because the prices of these houses have been hiked from RM25,000 to RM35,000 (and that too is hard to find) and higher. Even at the old price of RM25,000, many working class Malaysians found it hard to buy a house and raise a family at the same time. Bear in mind that many smaller factories in Penang are still paying their workers a basic salary of RM300-500 monthly.
If anything, the prices of low-cost houses must be lowered to ensure they remain within reach of the low-income group. More such houses - instead of expensive condominiums - should be built.
If the state Real Estate and Housing Developers Association thinks there are fewer needy people, it should visit some dismally congested squatter areas such as Mak Mandin in Butterworth, where hundreds of families live in plank houses with terrible drainage because they cannot afford proper housing. Moreover, many evicted tenants from former rent control houses in Georgetown are still looking for low-cost houses.
We urge the state government to lower the price of low-cost houses to RM25,000 and ensure that more such houses are built. If it means the developers have to increase their cross-subsidy and the state has to chip in, so be it. The developers and the state cannot wash their hands of their social responsibility in ensuring that all Malaysians enjoy the basic right to proper housing.
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