Shareda: Guidelines needed on affordable homes
Published on: Monday, July 08, 2013
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Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) is proposing a Guidelines and Standards for the 10,000 affordable houses to be built in Sabah in the next five years.
It's President Francis Goh said the commitment of building 10,000 units of Shareda-MLGH affordable homes was derived after a thorough checking with the association's members that there would be 22 affordable home projects soon to be implemented.
He said Shareda would be meeting personally with the each developer to iron out issues in order for the scheme to become a reality. He believed that it would take about a month for Shareda to complete everything before presenting the proposal to the Ministry.
"After I was elected as President on March 27, 2013, Shareda received a letter from MLGH to impose a 30 per cent quota for affordable homes that must be incorporated in every of our future development plan submission.
"I managed to convince the Ministry that Shareda members had in the past built a lot of affordable homes but it was not announced publicly.
"Under my leadership, I vouched to Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor that we are willing to commit and build 10,000 units of affordable homes for the state in the next five years.
"Shareda is willing to commit the above numbers because about 16,052 units of affordable homes were built since 2010," he said.
Goh said that currently, 15,030 units were already completed and another 1,022 units under progress and expected to be ready before end of 2013.
"Due to the above evidence, the Minister is kind enough to accept our offer and, thus, the said affordable home policy was then retracted," he said, adding that Shareda's commitment of 10,000 units was without applying any force towards its members. He said it had also come to his attention that some developers were also building landed properties and medium cost apartments 10km within the city centre. However, due to the expensive land cost, they have to sell these at more than RM300,000 to RM400,000 per unit.
"For this type of products, our fellow Shareda members may now have a good opportunity to joint venture with PR1MA Berhad, a company incorporated under Prime Minister Department who will identify feasible locations in the major township like Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau and Lahad Dato to build another 20,000 units of affordable homes with their selling price set from RM150,000 to RM400,000," he said.
According to him, Shareda was willing to commit and build more affordable homes for Sabah as it acknowledged the fact that the lower income earner earning less than RM2,500 per month have encountered mounting difficulties in purchasing a house which normally sells more than RM350,000 especially in the urban area.
The main reason for the price hike on properties was due to expensive land acquisition, he said. "Despite our commitment to the Ministry, Shareda always see the investment of developing affordable homes is fulfilling our corporate social responsibility rather than profit motivated.
"Thus, to ensure the above commitment can be fulfilled, the most important criteria have always lingered in developer's mind is the marketing risk," he said.
Goh advised Shareda members who wished to implement the same affordable home schemes in the same location, then they should reconsider as to avoid market competition or they can even joint venture with GLC like SPNB, JPN or PR1MA Berhad to reduce their market risks.
"I have to thank SPNB, JPN and PR1MA Berhad after a meeting with them, they fully agreed with my proposal that in order to complement those Government linked companies not to waste their valuable time in finding good feasible land to implement more affordable home projects, why not they sit down with Shareda members and tell us where you want to build as most of our members may have good feasible land to enter into a joint venture with the respective Government linked companies," he said.
It is for this reason, he had also consulted and discussed with all the key players such like SPNB, JPN, PR1MA Berhad to join force and work hand in hand to collaborate with the Ministry of Local Government so that many completed affordable home projects not being sold or occupied in West Malaysia will not happen here in Sabah.
Towards this end, Goh reiterated that Shareda had proposed that a special task force committee to be formed by the Ministry.
The MLGH affordable home special task force, he said may include industrial players and affordable home providers as committee members to collaborate closely with the Ministry in monitoring the overall progress, performance and speed for the implementation of affordable home schemes in Sabah.
"The special task force should assist all developers and Government linked companies to expedite the approval of development orders and to create certain incentives to be given back to those developers who assist the Government to build more affordable homes.
"The task force shall oversee the design, location, size and pricing as to fit the needs of the lower income group.
Guidelines and requirements must be set property to fit all affordable home providers without any conflict of interest," he said.
Goh also thanked the speakers from three respective key players of affordable homes providers namely the SPNB Sabah Branch head, Reggie Sua @ Mohd. Haffiz Sua, Haji Muzafar Mohamed who is the Vice President, Planning and Development for PR1MA Berhad and Datuk Mohamad Yusoff Ghazali, Deputy Director of Jabatan Perumahan Negara.
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