Rumah Mesra Sabah Maju Jaya: Initiative involves all 73 constituencies
Published on: Saturday, May 27, 2023
By: Ricardo Unto
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“The District Office is handling the initiative. As such, assemblymen can liase with the district officers about it,” Joachim said. - Bernam pic
Kota Kinabalu: The Rumah Mesra SMJ initiative involves all 73 constituencies in the State, said Deputy Chief Minister II Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam.
“The allocation of 20 units of Rumah Mesra SMJ per constituency is for all 73 constituencies. It does not matter whether the assemblyman is from the opposition or government side,” he said.
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“The District Office is handling the initiative. As such, assemblymen can liase with the district officers about it,” he said in his reply to a supplementary question by Sulabayan Assemblyman Datuk Jaujan Sambakong.
To a supplementary question by Kemabong Assemblyman Datuk Rubin Balang, Joachim explained that while the Rumah Mesra SMJ initiative is under the State Rural Development Ministry, “we have discussed at the Cabinet level and approved the use of conventional methods to build the houses.”
“There might be some difficulties in using IBS (integrated building system) in remote rural areas,” he said.
Earlier, to a question by Nominated Assemblyman Datuk Raime Unggi, Joachim, who is also Local Government and Housing Minister, said the Sabah Housing and Urban Development Board (LPPB) has, so far, built 29,218 low-cost houses Statewide and more are being constructed.
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A total of 175 low-cost houses are being built under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) and are expected to be completed in 2025.
“The construction of low-cost houses in the State is carried out by the LPPB for state agencies and by Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB) and the National Housing Department (JPN) for federal agencies,” he said.
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LPPB manages the house-building programme on its land through the Low Income Group Housing Loan Scheme (SPPUGBR) and Long House Loan Scheme (SPRP).
The low-cost houses, he said, are priced between RM42,000 and RM50,000 per unit.
Following the increase in the cost of raw materials and the rate of house prices, the private sector is not keen on building such houses.
“The implementation of the low-cost housing programme depends entirely on either the state or federal government allocation,” said Joachim.
He said the allocation from the Federal Government for the implementation of the low-cost housing programme is through the People’s Housing Programme (PPR) for rent implemented by JPN, Malaysian Civil Servant Housing (PPAM) Programme and PR1MA Corporation Malaysia (PR1MA).
He said that despite various incentives and encouragement given to housing developers to build low-cost houses, many were more inclined to build affordable, medium and high-cost homes to maximise profits.
“The Government will look at the best alternative to encourage these private housing developers to be involved in low-cost public housing development programmes, although it is clear that the response will not be encouraging due to the low profitability,” he said.
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