Ministry to create developer friendly package for affordable houses - Tengku Adnan

The Federal Territories Ministry plans to create a package that will benefit developers in terms of reducing cost and be time efficient when constructing affordable houses for the people.

Its minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said this initiative was to encourage more developers to start building affordable houses especially on their own land.

He said he understood the challenges faced by developers in building affordable houses especially when dealing with construction consultants, engineers and utilities which could cost a lot of money and time consuming.

"We are having discussion with consultants, architects, engineers, on how to come out with a package that will benefit developers to build affordable houses.

"Because the problem we have now is land, land to build affordable houses in the city," he told reporters after launching the Seri Wahyu Residency Federal Territories Affordable Houses (RUMAWIP) project here today.

Seri Wahyu Residency consists of one tower of 660 units priced at RM300,000 per unit with a built-up area of 805 sq ft that includes three rooms and two bathrooms.

The development will feature various facilities such as swimming pool, children's playground, gym and a multi-purpose hall.

RUMAWIP is the Malaysian government's initiative to build 80,000 affordable housing units throughout Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan by the year 2020.

Single individuals with monthly income of less than RM10,000 or married couples with a combined income of less than RM15,000 are entitled to register for the project.

Tengku Adnan said currently a total of 52,562 RUMAWIP units were successfully launched since last year across the Federal Territories.

When asked if the ministry would follow the initiative of 1Malaysia People's Housing Project (PR1MA) to shorten the moratorium period from 10 years to five years, Tengku Adnan said: "no for the time being".

He added that the difference between PR1MA and RUMAWIP was that RUMAWIP houses are mostly located in the prime area of the city and was concerned property agents would manipulate the situation.

-- BERNAMA