Govt plans to introduce hire purchase scheme for civil servants - Ali Hamsa

He said the scheme was still being carefully studied before a proposal on it was submitted to the Treasury and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

"We are still thinking of the best model for this proposal, maybe in the early stages, they (the civil servants) are still young and have many other expenses, we can rent out the houses and in the end, they will be given the chance to buy it," he said.

Ali was speaking at a press conference after launching the Jalan Cochrane Civil Servants Housinng Complex (KKKA) here and handing over house keys to 200 civil servants who are the first group to live in the quarters.

He said if the proposal was accepted, hopefully the scheme could be implemented next year.

"Of late, many civil servants have applied to extend their stay in the quarters even though they have retired, giving the reason that they did not own a home and gave the names of their children who were civil servants to continue living in the quarters.

"This is not fair as there are many applicants on the waiting list who want to stay in the quarters, for instance in Putrajaya alone, there are about 22,000 applicants," he said.

Ali said the government had implemented the 1Malaysia Public Servants Housing (PPA1M) among others to resolve the problem of house ownership among civil servants and the Hire Purchase Scheme was the latest development in this matter.

Earlier, in his speech, Ali said the Jalan Cochrane quarters would benefit civil servants, especially those who worked in the federal capital.

"KKKA dwellers only need to pay a very low rental compared to the market rate while the maintenance costs is fully borne by the government," he said.

The 3.6-hectare civil servants residence complex with 896 units was built at a cost of RM220 million and was completed on Jan 27 this year.

The KKKA Jalan Cochrane also has 1,028 carparks, a community hall, surau, a field and four office units.