Government urged to take over construction of affordable homes

The government must consider taking over fully the role of constructing affordable homes to enable the young generation to own houses. MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon said to control costs, such projects could be built on reserve lands belonging to the federal and state governments "The national housing policy must be reviewed so that the federal and state governments can allocate reserve land for the development of quality affordable homes. This is to ensure the construction costs are maintained at a low level compared to the private sector which has to buy land at a high cost. To profit they have to build luxury units," he said. Chong said this at a press conference after chairing the first meeting of the central committee of the movement at Wisma MCA here, Thursday. He said, while the government built the affordable homes, the construction costs must also be borne by the private sector developer and a special fund must be created for this purpose.