Developers who believe that the government’s “build and sell” alternative is more costly would rather adopt the housing model used in South Korea, said reports.
A Real Estate and Housing Developer’s Association of Malaysia (Rehda) senior official said they are “studying the system practised in South Korea where they have a Korea housing guarantee.” Founded in 1999, the Korea Housing Guarantee Co Ltd operates as a specialised housing finance company that offers guarantees for project completions.
Meanwhile, a Rehda team will also head to South Korea this week together with officials from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
Last year, the government announced the implementation of the “build and sell” concept by 2015 to address the issue of abandoned housing projects.
Redha Deputy President Datuk Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor said the concept is not the only acceptable option as it is costly and could seize the construction of new houses in the country where 130,000 new houses are needed in Selangor alone.
“We built about 110,000 houses last year. If the concept was in place, we would be able to build only about 30 percent of that number, which will means only 30,000 houses and that is insufficient based on the demand following the Greater Kuala Lumpur project,” he said.
He added that the city will need 120,000 houses a year or one million units in five years as Kuala Lumpur’s population is expected to increase by another four million people moving to the city as part of the Greater Kuala Lumpur plan.
Farah Wahida, Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email farahwahida@propertyguru.com.my
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