EVOLUTION OF POLICY FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROGRAMMES IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Housing sector has always been one of the main agendas in any developing countries. Housing provision is more than often been the issue that needed urgent emphasis. Depending on the economic system practiced, some countries practices interventions to achieve its socio economic goals. In a mixed economic system, housing provision in Malaysia is significantly affected by both public and private sector. The urbanization level in Malaysia has increased significantly from 34.2% in 1980 to 71% in 2010, 75% by the year 2020, and up to 80% by 2030. This will significantly increase the population hence demand for housing. Issues on affordability for those in the B40 and M40 to purchase house is prevalent and has becoming more crucial in recent years. Housing policy has been formulated since after independence to address issues in housing sector. Therefore, a look into affordable housing policy will give a deeper understanding on this subject. The objective of this paper is firstly to understand the current scenario of the housing issues in Malaysia. Secondly to analyse the policies on affordable housing through significant milestone in the evolution of policies for housing programmes and finally to identify the way forward in affordable housing policy. A literature on various medium, either through previous studies, publication and mass media will give some insights on the affordability scenario. A content analysis on secondary data on past and current housing policy will give understanding on the affordable housing policy evolution lastly, expert interviews with stakeholders will give verification to the findings. The conclusion of this paper indicates that affordability issue is crucial and some significant milestone in housing policy formulation showed that encouraging efforts on affordable housing provision is in the pipeline. The way forward sees encouraging efforts to introduce programmes towards provision of affordable housing for the middle-income population. This is done through public private partnership in the provision of housing within Malaysia.