Penang’s affordable housing only for the creditworthy

GEORGE TOWN: Affordable housing applicants must now show their creditworthiness when applying.

The state government has made this a requirement on the advice of Bank Negara, said state Housing Comittee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo.

“Bank Negara has urged us to require applicants to submit a Central Credit Reference Informa-tion System (CCRIS) report on themselves when applying for affordable housing.

“We are making this a requirement because creditworthiness is the most important factor in loan approvals,” he said.

Jagdeep Singh said Bank Negara had also offered to train state housing officers to filter applicants based on the CCRIS report.

“If the applicant is not creditworthy, we will refer them to Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency where they can improve their debt management,” he said.

The new requirement, he said, was to address the high loan rejection rate of applicants, which slowed down the sales turnover of affordable housing developers.

Jagdeep Singh also questioned a 1Malaysia People’s Housing Scheme (PR1MA) project in Balik Pulau which had quoted high-rise units priced up to RM510,000.

He said PR1MA could not state it was following state housing guidelines because of the price of these units in Kuala Sungai Pinang.

“Even Umno does not agree with the pricing,” he said, referring to Pulau Betong assemblyman Muhammad Farid Saad who recently urged PR1MA to revise the proposed development to low-rise and low-density units costing less than RM200,000.