50 pct of PR1MA home buyers are young people - Reezal Merican

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said that last year, 34 per cent or 1,904 PR1MA home buyers were from this group.

"This proves that the PR1MA homes offer price is a favourite among young people and they can afford it," he said during the Ministers' Question Time at the Dewan Rakyat, today.

He said this in his reply to a question from Datuk Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (Bersatu-Sabak Bernam) who wanted the Minister of Housing and Local Government to state to what extent it had succeeded in providing affordable housing projects, especially for young people, aged 25 to 35, and their response to the PR1MA housing projects, nationwide.

Apart from that, he said PR1MA would also introduce the Youth Home Ownership initiative which aimed to increase PR1MA homeownership among young people from 50.3 per cent to 70 per cent by the end of 2022.

Reezal said his ministry was planning to provide Youth Transit Housing (RTB) in several locations in the Klang Valley following high house prices and rental rates in the area to help young people own a home.

"A total of two RTB projects have been proposed in Mukim Batu, Kuala Lumpur and one project in Rawang, Selangor. The Mukim Batu RTB project in Kuala Lumpur will develop a total of 1,400 units and for the Rawang RTB, Selangor a total of 3,000 units will be built.

"The Ministry of Housing and Local Government's (KPKT) big agenda on housing will focus on '5K' concept, namely availability, affordability, financing facilities, quality and livability housing unit. I believe this is also the desire of the young generation in Malaysia as a whole," he said.

Answering Mohd Fasiah's supplementary question on the proposed establishment of a national housing fund and to what extent the PR1MA housing developers can provide infrastructure such as internet technology and parking facilities, Reezal said all facilities were taken into account according to the '5K' concept.

"Regarding the proposed national housing fund, this is a matter that I am looking into as well as the panel of experts established under KPKT. We will formulate a new proposal that can adopt (this proposal), in order to be convincing, and subsequently approved by the Bank Negara and Ministry of Finance.

"The affordable housing units under PR1MA are equipped with fibre-to-the-unit and all the units have internet access infrastructure. We do not want to see the houses to B40 have a low livability level," he said.

In his reply to a question from Wong Hon Wai (PH-Bukit Bendera) on the allocation from the government to implement the RTB and its expansion to Penang and Johor Bahru this year, Reezal said there were plans in place to expand the initiative.

"Currently, as mentioned, this RTB is in the Klang Valley, but this RTB has also started to be held in other states, in the state of Johor, for example. So we look at the overall agenda of providing this housing initiative," he said.