Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Friday, 25^th May 2012:

30% affordable home policy by Sabah State Government

The Sabah government is planning on a 30% of housing units built in housing projects in Sabah to be "Affordable Homes". This is definitely no good news for the housing developers. The Sabah Local Government and Housing is moving a policy to enforce all housing developers to adopt a new policy that all housing developers must build first the 30% affordable homes before embarking on to the other units on site. The developers will be hit hard on the high cost in sustaining the development as there is no money to be made from the affordable houses which has to be built first.

The 30% policy if once implemented will create an instant property price hike and the sufferers will be the consumers. The developers are not happy about the proposal, and stating that it is bad for the industry, and the overall housing price control will be badly affected. It is for sure once this policy is enforced, the 30% affordable homes prices will be subsidized from escalated price of the high end units. The developers will definitely make adjustment in their development to suit and for achieving profit, which includes reducing size of development to cut capital required. The small and medium size developers will be wiped out or controlled by the big developers, who can even become Monopoly.

Therefore the prices of properties will shoot up. Besides, the developers are also reluctant in using their expensive land to build affordable homes which can only be sold at a range between RM 100,000 to RM 225,000 per units. The proposed policy also stated the limit of the size of the house. The question is why an unfair penalty of RM 80,000 per unit is imposed on developers who do not develop affordable housing.

This proposed new policy to make the developers to build 30% affordable houses is unfair and not reasonable. The Sabah Local Government and Housing Ministry should be focusing on moving the projects to build more affordable homes using government lands especially the low cost and cheaper houses. They should not force the private development to scarify their profit by forcing them to build affordable homes for the government.

The LPPB, SPNB, and PPRT are the righteous bodies set up to build low, medium and affordable homes, but why these bodies could not deliver the required number of houses for the people. It is known that many projects under them were either abandoned, stop work or needed to restart all over again. Hiew commented that since there are already three bodies to build affordable homes, why force the private sectors to cut 30% of their units to be affordable?

The Sabah Government should consider using a land-use zoning system to mark out the land use for affordable homes. There should be new land zoning for affordable homes, and should be different from the normal existing residential zoning, and these should not be changed. The authorities like local councils, land and survey department, and local government should proceed to identify, mark out and source for such land suitable for the affordable homes building. This should be marked out from the many state land which are vacant, available and suitable for the building of the affordable homes. The new proposed policy on 30 % affordable houses should not be implemented and enforced due to its unfair and not reasonable nature.

The government should carry out speedy construction of more affordable houses using the government fund to fulfill their promise of "Homes for Everyone"!

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu