The government's target of building 100,000 units of 1Malaysia Civil Servants' Housing (PPA1M) throughout the country by 2018 has almost been achieved with the launch of another such project at Metropolitan Kepong (MRR2) here.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the PPA1M Metropolitan Kepong which was being developed by the JL99 Group on a site measuring 8.2 acres would involve the construction of two apartment blocks containing 1,230 housing units.

“As of May 2016, a total of 148 PPA1M projects comprising 82,012 housing units have been approved by the government and are now in various stages of implementation.

“We promise 100,000 units of PPA1M by the year 2018 and have now almost reached the target. This is the government's commitment, insya Allah (God willing) we can fulfill it," he said when addressing more than 1,000 civil servants who have succeeded in applying for the PPA1M Metropolitan Kepong here.

Also present at the launch were Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa and Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz.

The Prime Minister said the affordable home project such as the PPA1M was very close to his heart and was among the government's highest priority.

He explained that PPA1M was also one of the government's measures to ease the credit risk and financial burden of civil servants to own a home.

Najib said the selling price of the PPA1M was 30 per cent lower than the market price as a result of the implementation of the cross subsidy, where the profits from commercial development such as shoplots by developers at the project site would be used to build the housing blocks.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said owners of PPA1M were imposed an additional condition, that is, they could not sell their housing unit within a period of 10 years to avoid price speculation.

On the Metropolitan Kepong PPA1M, Najib said piling works had been completed and pile capping works were now being carried out.

“The PPA1M Metropolitan project in Kepong is expected to be ready in 2018," he said.

The PPA1M project in Metropolitan Kepong offers four types of housing namely 124 units of Type A (850 sq ft), 370 units of Type B (1,000 sq ft), 494 units of Type C (1,200 sq ft) and 242 units of Type D (1,500 sq ft).

The housing project is also equipped with various facilities such as surau, Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia, Klinik 1Malaysia and playground which provide for a more comfortable living.

A total of 5,027 applications were received for the PPA1M Metropolitan Kepong and only 1,230 were eligible to own the home.