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Friday July 17, 2009

Getting serious about housing

By FOONG PEK YEE


HOUSING is more than providing affordable and decent shelter for the people.

It is also about helping to keep the economy going, providing jobs in the downstream economic activities, and finding ways to improve security in housing areas with the worsening crime rates and house break-ins.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha shares his concern and what it means by “people first, performance now” in an interview with The Star on his 100 days in office.

Q: Datuk Seri, many people are living in fear these days due to the rising incidence of house break-ins. Those who can afford it opt for the gated and guarded community living. Do you think it is feasible that all housing areas be developed as gated and guarded communities?

A: The ministry’s town and country planning department is working with the local authorities to impose guidelines to include crime safety features in houses.

The department, under its Bandar Selamat (safe town) concept, was more concerned over aspects like road safety and fire safety in the past. It is time that this be extended to crime safety and be given priority as well.

The local authorities, when approving housing plans or design, must get developers to comply with the guidelines (to include crime safety features).

What are the types of crime safety features being considered?

The design of houses must be a deterrent to theft. This certainly is a good selling point these days. Apart from design, developers are also encouraged to include other crime safety features.

Gated and guarded community would involve payment of maintenance fees by the residents.

This is one aspect that must be considered if we are talking about making all housing estates gated and guarded communities.

More competitive pricing for housing units, incentives for housebuyers like tax cuts and lower interest rates for mortgage loans have made buying a house timely. What is your advice?

All the incentives certainly has the people’s interest and also that of the industry, in mind.

Buying a house for oneself is something very personal. It depends on the individual’s financial situation, his needs, and also that of his family.

For investors, it is about the risk they are willing to take.

Normally, house prices in high demand areas do not plunge during economic downturn. The prices have potential to move up during good times and the chance of making a profit is there. It is demand and supply.

A fear among buyers is abandoned projects, especially during the economic downturn. What is the situation of the housing industry now?

I am glad to say that the industry is still healthy; resilient though not robust.

Between January and May this year, the ministry issued developers with 326 housing developer licences to build 38,989 units of houses.

Apart from that, another 321 advertising and sales permits have also been issued to developers. This is against the 816 licences and 822 permits issued last year.

These licences and permits were issued after the developers obtained all the necessary approvals at the state level to start construction and sales.

What about the abandoned projects?

There has been no report of abandoned projects due to the economic downturn so far.

Nevertheless, there could be projects which have stalled because of mismanagement on the part of developers, or projects on hillslopes.

There are still 41 projects with a total of 12,319 housing units classified as abandoned between 1990 and May 2009.

They are among the 148 projects comprising a total of 48,960 housing units in the same period.

The rest are in various stages of rehabilitation, including six which have their units completed and another 50 projects which had been wound up. The Government sympathises with buyers of abandoned projects and have implemented regulations to check it.

Are there many completed housing units that remain unsold and what are the reasons?

There are 26,029 units worth about RM4.5bil last year. The problem of unsold units is due to several factors, including pricing and unsuitable location.

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