To make housing more affordable, the Malaysian Institute of Professional Property Managers (MIPPM) has urged the government to allow the construction of ‘shell houses’ and boost the use of Industrialised Building System.
With affordable housing as one of the relevant issues facing the Malaysian economy today, its president, Sarkunan Subramaniam, noted that there is a need for measures in order to focus on various areas and find creative ways in implementing them.
The government should promote the use of IBS by more contractors and developers as the system is effective in bringing down construction costs, said Sarkunan, who also serves as managing director at Knight Frank Sdn Bhd.
Notably, the government had allocated RM50 million for IBS promotion in Budget 2016, which was made available via Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Bhd to provide soft loans to contractors and developers within category G5 and below.
G5 licence holders are allowed to undertake building construction and civil engineering jobs that are valued at not more than RM5 million.
“Besides pushing for IBS, the government could also consider allowing developers to build a ‘shell house’, which is a house without internal structures. This will allow the owners to design according to their needs,” said Sarkunan.
“This can be another way of making homes more affordable since buyers do not pay for houses with internal structures that they do not need,” he added.
Mangalesri Chandrasekaran, Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email mangales@propertyguru.com.my
