The government’s pledge to increase the supply of affordable housing without first studying the market needs would cause disruption in the housing market, which is already facing a supply overhang issue.
According to 1Malaysia People’s Housing Scheme (PR1MA) chairman Tan Sri Eddy Chen, Malaysia has an overhang of 15,000 to 20,000 residential units at any one point, going up to as high as 32,000 units in 2018.
“So, how do you justify the government’s plan to build 100,000 units of affordable homes every year beginning 2019 (as part of its target of building one million affordable homes in 10 years),” he told reporters at Rehda Institute’s National Property Information Centre (Napic) report overview 2019-cum-Big Data analytics conference yesterday.
“These new affordable housing units from the government are also competing with the [private] market players,” Chen said.
