THE PENANG STATE GOVERNMENT AFFORDABLE HOUSING EXPO 2018

Speech by Chief Minister of Penang  

At The Penang State Government Affordable Housing EXPO 2018

on 31st March 2018 (Saturday)

Sunway Carnival Mall, Seberang Jaya

 

I am very proud to be here today to deliver this keynote address at the Penang State Government Affordable Housing EXPO 2018. 

The Penang State Housing Department should be commended for having such an Affordable Housing EXPO, which initially began as "Mission Home-Possible" Roadshows commencing in 2014. Since then, a total sum of 12 Mission Home-Possible Roadshows and EXPOs have been conducted. This is the first EXPO for the year 2018.  

As you are aware, the Penang State Government, in the delivery of affordable housing to Penangites, has in the pipeline some 18 projects which will  see some 27,306 units of various types of affordable housing ranging from RM42,000 to RM300,000 being delivered to Penangites. 

Under this administration, a total sum of 25,555 units of Low Cost, Low Medium Cost and Affordable Housing (Maximum RM300,000) has been delivered from 2008 till now. Additionally, 49,806 units of such affordable housing have been approved to be built of which 19,828 units have started construction.

In fact, it should be the previous Minister of Housing, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan that should be reprimanded for allowing an increase of the price of Low and Low Medium Cost housing from RM42,000 and RM72,500 to RM60,000 and RM100,000 respectively. I challenge the Federal Government to review their stand especially having regard to the fact that applications for housing loans by applicants of Low and Low Medium Cost priced even at the current RM42,000 and RM72,500, are suffering high loan rejection rates. 

This is a fact which cannot be denied even by the BN-led Federal Government. This is because where Penang is concerned, the BN Opposition had agreed with the Penang Pakatan State Government to issue a Joint Motion dated 22 February 2017 to the Prime Minister and Bank Negara Malaysia to address the said high loan rejection rate issue. Unfortunately, to date there has been no progress on the said joint motion as not a single meeting has been convened to discuss this. This clearly shows the insincerity of the BN-led Federal Government in addressing this issue. 

In any event, where Penang is concerned, we will continue to ensure various affordable housing ranging from RM42,000 to RM300,000 are made available to Penangites. The 18 projects will deliver 27,306 units of various types of affordable housing.

This is totally unlike the Federal Government which has completely failed Penang where under the 1 Malaysia People's Housing Programme (PR1MA), to date not even one unit of PR1MA has been built. On the other hand, the Penang State Government affordable housing project in Batu Kawan had obtained its Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) on 22 February 2018. 

This Penang State Government is certainly on track in the provision of adequate affordable housing for Penangites. We will succeed where BN has failed provided that Bank Negara relaxes lending guidelines to allow applicants to get financing. It is ridiculous that Bank Negara restricts lending to the poor to buy RM42,000 low-cost houses but can allow bank to freely lend billions of Ringgit to 1MDB to Jho Low. If Bank Negara stubbornly refuses to relax lending for the poor, then when we change the Government in 60 days, we will change such unreasonable rules against the poor and the first-time house buyers.

With these words, I wish to congratulate the entire Penang State Housing Department on their successful organization of this Penang State Government Affordable Housing EXPO 2018. 

Syabas and all the best!