KOTA KINABALU: DAP Sabah has called on the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Governments to focus on building affordable houses within city or urban area instead of sub-urban area.
Its chairman Jimmy Wong feels that affordable houses should be built in city area, at least within 10-20km from the heart of the city, because the heavy demand for affordable houses mostly comes from the urban area, for example, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau.
He added that more than 50 percent of the total population is living in city now. It is therefore crucial to build more affordable houses in the city and municipalities to meet the demand of middle and bottom class.
Wong who is also Member of parliament for Kota Kinabalu, raised relevant issues in the parliament sitting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
He was commenting on recent news that 5,000 affordable houses under the MyHome scheme, an initiative by ministry, would be launched in Sabah this year.
According to Deputy Minister Halimah Sadique, the government had allocated RM300 million as subsidy as high as RM30,000 to assist qualified buyers to get their first house, costing from RM90,000 to RM250,000.
A total of 10,000 houses will be ready by end of this year in Sabah.
“Due to lack of road facilities and public transport, if the said affordable houses were built at the outbound of city, for instance, as far as 30km away from the city, it would be very difficult for house buyers or owners who are working in the city,” he added.
He further clarified that it would help resolved the problem of urban poverty. “With rising price hike, worsening traffic jam, living quality become burdening, these would be a burden to the people in the city and hardly survive with income at around RM3,000.”
“Therefore, I hope the ministry would look into this issue seriously and come out with a new plan to build affordable houses in the city area,” he said.
“How many affordable houses have been built within these five years and how many of them will be built in the coming five years?” he asked.
He said, qualified buyers who earn at least more than RM3,000, should also given consideration and subsidies to help those who earn less than RM3,000.
“According to a report, there were more than 60 percent households earning less than RM3,000 in 2012. It means the government should really put more effort to meet the demand of the lower income group to fulfill their dream of owning a house,” he said.
As Barisan National has targetted in its manifesto during GE13, that 1 million of affordable houses would be built within five years, Wong was doubtful about whether the ministry could accomplish this mission.
How many of them will be built in Sabah in the next five years? He asked.