SHAH ALAM: The Selangor Waqf Corp (PWS) is waiting for the Retirement Fund Inc, or KWAP, to identify waqf land in the state for development into retirement housing for the elderly and low-income retirees.
Under Budget 2025, it was announced that KWAP would provide RM300mil in funding for the development of waqf land nationwide.
PWS chief executive officer Anuar Hamzah shared with StarBiz that Selangor had 1,700 acres of waqf land, of which only about 11% remains undeveloped.
“Out of the 1,700-acres, about 11% will be built into commercial properties for the benefit of the community. All of those are either undergoing construction or in its planning stages,” he said, adding that the remaining land will mainly be utilised to develop mosques, education centres and others.
When asked on the development of waqf land with KWAP, Anuar said PWS would await the decision KWAP makes in identifying the potential land for development into retirement homes for the elderly and lower-income retirees.
“So, once KWAP is ready to kickstart (the development), then we (PWS) will have the waqf land ready to develop these projects,” he said after a “meet-and-greet” session with the media here yesterday.
He also shared that PWS “is always open to collaborating with other corporate or non-government organisations to develop these waqf land”.
“Several parcels of waqf land are considered valuable assets as they could help boost the economy as well as social development,” he added.
On another note, Anuar shared that the group targets to collect about more than RM70mil in waqf contributions for 2025. This is down from 2024’s target of RM100mil.
The lower goal was attributed to the downtrend of contributions from corporate entities observed in 2024, saying that “we see that last year, the trend for waqf contributions in cash was higher as more corporate bodies participated in contributing.
“However, this year, only a few have given their fair share of contributions,” he said. Nonetheless, PWS remains committed to helping the people in need and giving back to the community through higher waqf collections.
Anuar stated that the group will be introducing a five-year strategic masterplan with the main goal of spreading awareness on the benefits of waqf for the community, with hopes of collecting higher contributions from individuals as well as corporates.
Despite not disclosing any further details on the masterplan, he shared that the group expects to collect about RM300mil to RM400mil annually once the plan progresses.
Additionally, Sabak Bernam was noted to have the highest waqf land registration in the state of Selangor amounting to 14.2 ha as of 2023. Anuar attributed the higher number to the level of awareness that Malaysians now have on the importance of waqf.
As of December 2024, PWS announced that a total of RM2.42mil waqf fisabilillah had been distributed to 69 institutions – including seven mosques, 12 musollahs, 45 educational institutions and five other institutions.
