The Selangor government is
requesting Bank Negara to review its strict guidelines for housing loans to
allow more Selangor folk to buy affordable housing in the state.
Selangor
Housing Committee chairman Datuk Iskandar Abdul Samad said half of the
non-eligible applicants were not able to secure housing loans because of their
National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans.
“We
have some 60% of rejected applicants and most rejections were because of their
PTPTN loans. We have asked Bank Negara to attend a meeting to discuss this but
they declined the offer,” said Iskandar.
He said
this in response to Dr Xavier Jeyakumar’s (PKR-Seri Andalas) query on the
reason behind the high number of rejections for the Selangorku housing scheme.
Iskandar
said they had their own schemes to help the applicants financially, through the
Smart Sewa scheme and Dana Sel.
In
fact, affordable housing schemes in Selangor was the focal point of discussion
at the Selangor state assembly’s question-and-answer session yesterday.
The
first question was posed by Ng Suee Lim (DAP-Sekinchan) on the status of the
Selangorku Affordable Housing Scheme and the difference between the scheme and
the Federal Government’s Prima homes.
Iskandar
said there were 14 projects under the Selangorku banner with one completed
project and 11 under construction.
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“Prima
homes are priced at RM400,000 per unit while SelangorKu homes are priced at
RM250,000.
“Prima
has expressed their wish to build Prima homes here but we have put forth
several conditions,” he added.
The
conditions include capping the Prima homes at RM250,000 as per the price of
Selangorku houses and to combine the name of Prima and Selangorku for the
housing scheme.
Ng also
asked about the timeline given to developers who are building the Selangorku
houses.
Iskandar
said the developers would have to submit the planning approval within six
months and works for the Selangorku houses have to begin first or be built
simultaneously with their other projects.
Haniza
Talha (PKR-Taman Medan) urged Iskandar to help apply for a bigger allocation
for the Ceria Scheme to allow the state to fix the infrastructure in low-cost
housing flats.
Iskandar
said they had allocated RM10mil from the Malaysian Road Records Information
System fund to fix the roads and drainage in the first phase from January to
June this year.
However,
Haniza felt it was insufficient to fix the relevant flats and urged Iskandar to
consider applying for a bigger budget.
Asked
if Iskandar would consider the proposal, he said there was a possibility in the
upcoming budget meeting in November.
