Kuala Lumpur, Jan 24 – The Kedah State Government plans to build 20,000 affordable homes under the Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia (PR1MA) Housing Scheme in four to five years, said Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mukhriz said the state government was aware of the hardships faced by Kedahans who were grappling with the pressures of life following the spiralling costs of living.
The main component of their hardship was the price of the house, he said.
“We also plan to build another 40,000 homes in the state with the cooperation from Syarikat Perumahan Nasional Bhd and the private companies by 2018,” said Mukhriz.
He was saying this at the signing ceremony among PR1MA and Kedah State Economic Development Corp (PKNK) and housing developer, SP Baiduri Sdn Bhd.
PR1MA also signed a memorandum of understanding with PKNK to work closely with to identify the availability of strategic land in the state to build PR1MA homes and also exchange development documents with SP Baiduri to build houses in Sungai Petani.
PR1MA’s Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Abdul Mutalib Alias, said the Sungai Petani project consisted of over 1,000 homes on 44.4 hectares.
He said the project was expected to be launched in two to three months and the homes would be strategically located within the vicinity of hypermarkets, schools, clinics and banks.
“SP Baiduri will build single-storey link and semi-detached houses and double-storey link and semi-detached houses. The houses are expected to be priced from RM150,000 to RM250,000,” he said.
Abdul Mutalib said PR1MA was also looking at Alor Setar, Kulim and Langkawi to build the PR1MA homes.
He said to date, the corporation has approved 45,000 homes nationwide and work had already started in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur.
PR1MA also targeted to launch its existing approved projects this year with the balloting to follow a month or two after the launch, he said.
“We have received about 340,000 online applications to-date and are looking at stepping up our efforts to fulfil our target to build 500,000 homes.
“We are committed to build houses with prices 20 per cent lower than the market price despite the increasing costs of the housing materials,” he said.
-Bernama
