Penang exco Jagdeep Singh Deo wonders why the DAP is often labelled the "Developers Action Party" when the state has a strict compliance clause for developers to built 30 percent of public housing (PPR) units.
"Developers make a lot of money and they do not like me very much as I am the one who imposed such a clause, which requires them to build low- (RM42,000) and low-medium-cost (RM72,500) houses," Jagdeep told a crowd of 50 who attended a workshop on "Understanding and Addressing Housing Issues" in Penang yesterday.
"In order to build one unit that is 600 to 700sq ft, the developer has to fork out RM120k for actual construction cost. They lose money straight away but if I do not impose such conditions, who will build the low- and low-medium-cost (LMC) units?" he asked.
"No one will because all they see is dollars and cents, they all want to make money, so they say, in that case, I will make my normal housing price higher," said Jagdeep, who is the state Local Government Housing Committee chairperson.
Jagdeep said he has the numbers to show that price hikes in other property units, due to developers having to comply with the affordable housing units, is not more than five percent.
He added that developers who agree to take on a 100 percent affordable housing project (not more than RM300,000 per unit) are exempted from building low-cost and LMC units.
"This is how I compromise. I sat down with them and told them not to intimidate me, I asked them if they can do it (build 100 percent affordable units) and they said yes, because at the end of the day, the category (of people) who purchase houses the most are those in the affordable housing category, " Jagdeep explained.
He said cooling measures imposed on the property market since 2014 will continue, however, the state is willing to ease developers burden when they fall on hard times.
He said there are currently 19 affordable housing projects in Penang and six have been completed.
On March 8, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, announced three locations which had been identified for public housing projects, namely Gelugor, Teluk Kumbar and Balik Pulau.
"If developers do not come on board to build affordable housing, those luxurious ones will not be sold as most people simply cannot afford it," said Jagdeep, who is also DAP's Dato Keramat assemblyperson.
As for Penang Pakatan Harapan's election manifesto on housing, Jagdeep said the state sidelined by Putrajaya during BN's reign but Harapan's GE14 promise to build 76,000 units of affordable housing has since been met.
"Currently, we have exceeded beyond expectation as we have built and are in the process of building 101,163 units of affordable homes," Jagdeep said.
Organised by the People's Housing Network, a coalition of local NGOs including Aliran, Suaram and PSM, the event's second panel on current situation of housing was moderated by USM senior lecturer Azmil Tayeb.
Former Penang exco Toh Kin Woon, who now sits on the board of directors of the People's History Center, delivered the opening speech at the event, which covered four sessions on the issue, including cases of evictions which recently took place in Penang.
Lim Chee Han (above), co-founder of Agora Society Malaysia, in his talk "Housing Policy and Affordability" agreed that the government has to work with the private sector to build houses.
However, the state should listen to people's views on what kind of housing they need and plan a "win-win situation" for all parties to address the demands of owning a home," Lim added.
"On the supply side, the government needs to have a land bank where they can give developers some kind of incentice to build a desirable public housing project which has a desirable cost range," Lim suggested.
"The government has a role to invest in social housing. They can do it more effectively with proper data to show which type of housing is needed in certain areas.
"An intergrated data base on housing is important, it is also a requirement in our national housing policy where urban planning must be based on evidence," he added.
Aliran president Prema Devaraj who spoke on the 'Impact of Gender Roles on Women in Low Cost, High Rise Housing' urged the state to consider the different needs of a diversified group of residents who live in public housing units.
Besides the different needs of men and women, Prema said the state and developers of social housing units need to look into the project's assessibility to schools, general hospitals and easy access to public transport.
"They are often ill people and senior citizens who need care in such social housing units, and children who lack recreational spaces at home that they have to go out and play while exposing themselves to all kinds of dangers," she said.
"Social housing units often comes with small kitchens and lack of space to do or hang the laundry, the spaces need cleaning up very often as they are congested, and mostly women spend their time cleaning up that they do not have time to join meetings to discuss about their housing needs, " she added. - Mkini
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