JOHOR BARU: Johor has come up with a policy for developers to include affordable homes in their housing projects, Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said.
Under the policy, developers must build houses priced around RM80,000, RM100,000 and RM220,000.
“The state government previously had a policy for developers to build low-cost homes.
“We have changed this to ‘affordable housing’ that includes properties that are bigger and catering also to the medium-income groups,” he said in his annual address to Johor civil service officials at the Pusat Islam Iskandar here yesterday.
Abdul Ghani announced another 10,000 units of affordable houses would be built in the state.
This is on top of the 25,500 affordable homes to be built in Iskandar Malaysia by Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) over the next three years.
Abdul Ghani said the state government had noticed a spike in property prices in Johor, especially in the Iskandar Malaysia region.
“This (revised policy) is one way for us to ensure that the people will still be able to purchase affordable homes in prime areas,” he said, adding that the price of normal terrace houses had reached to about RM700,000 to RM800,000 and the issue needed to be addressed.
Regarding the development in Iskandar Malaysia, the mentri besar said that more than 1.2 million jobs would be generated there by 2020.
“With increased investments and new projects in Iskandar, we expect higher-paying skilled jobs to be offered to the people,” he said, adding that previously the bulk of jobs available to locals was related to the electronics or manufacturing line.
Source : The Star
