Houses priced RM500,000 should not be considered “affordable” as these homes are beyond the reach of most Malaysians, who earn a median monthly income of RM5,228.
Even in Kuala Lumpur, where the median monthly income of RM9,073 is the highest among all states, a house priced RM500,000 would still be considered unaffordable, based on the calculation for an affordable market.
An affordable market is one where the median house price is 3.0 times median household income, which means an affordable home in Kuala Lumpur should be priced around RM300,000.
To date, the National House Buyers Association (HBA) and the central bank have refuted the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) Malaysia’s “unrealistic” definition of affordable housing.
