SIBU: Sarawak Housing And Real Estate Developers Association (Sheda) is grateful for the initiatives taken by the Sarawak government in relaxing and fine-tuning planning guidelines to make it possible for more affordable housing to be built by private developers.
According to Sheda vice-president Cecil Lau Ning Kiang, this would benefit especially the middle income group (M40), which encompasses the majority of the population.
“The journey to ensure quality affordable housing be built but sold at controlled prices by our government is defintely a challenging one, especially in the current situation, which has seen a sharp price increase in almost all building materials and costs in the past two years or so,” he said at the launch of the three-day Sheda Property Roadshow 2022 at Wisma Sanyan here today.
The event was launched by Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government, Michael Tiang Ming Tee, and attended by Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting Ing Horth and Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) chairman Sempurai Petrus Ngelai, among others.
Lau, who is also the Sibu Sheda chairman, said the efficiency and aggregated costs of all services, materials, costs, with authority compliance, affected the affordability and quality of houses.
“This means that delivery and commitments from the industry player, from the labourers, building contractor, manufacturers/retailers of building materials; support from banking/financial sectors and the flexibilities of policymaking affect the prices of the properties.
“In order to ensure quality and affordable housing, Sheda members strongly support initiatives in collaboration with higher learning institutions, so that the graduates will have better understanding of construction industries and its practices which helps to improve the efficiency and quality of the housing industries.
“Upon further training our younger generations, they can play an important role to lower the costs of delivery of houses while improving the quality thereof,” Lau explained.
He stated that another initative was the housing deposit assistance scheme intended to help first-time home buyers.
Based on the figures released recently, he said over 1,000 buyers had enjoyed the benefits under the scheme and “the good news is that it has not been fully taken up yet.”
