Mohd Jafni (front row, fifth from right) with 57 representatives of housing developers in Johor during a meeting to discuss the new Johor Housing Policy in Kota Iskandar.
MENTRI Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi will announce details about a housing scheme for the lower-income group soon with the introduction of the new Johor Housing Policy.
Johor housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said the new policy would enable more people from the B40 and M40 groups to own homes under the Rumah Mampu Biaya Johor (RMBJ) initiative.
The state government, added Mohd Jafni, would consider the feedback of housing developers in the state regarding the higher price of building materials and wages for construction workers.
“We met 57 developers in the state to share with them the new policy and some of the proposals we have for the RMBJ.
“We informed them that we would look at the pricing of RMBJ units to ensure a win-win situation for all stakeholders,” he said.
Mohd Jafni said a total of 2,415 RMBJ units had been built as of June this year, which is slightly lower than the state government’s target of 2,459.
He said the state government, through Johor State Housing Development Corporation (PKPJ), hoped to build 21,319 RMBJ units in the next five years.
The state government also met with Real Estate and Housing Developers Association Malaysia (Rehda) to ensure that these units were allocated to the B40 and M40 groups, he added.
“We have discussed the direction of the state housing committee, which includes how we can provide various rent-to-own schemes besides introducing a policy to help those who cannot obtain a bank loan.
“We need strong support from the developers so that we can achieve our target of 21,319 RMBJ units that are priced under RM150,000,” he said when contacted.
“All the 21,319 units will be built across the state’s 10 districts to provide housing for the B40 and M40 groups.
“As of June, we have managed to build 2,415 RMBJ units after two years of not being able to build affordable homes due to the (Covid-19) pandemic,” he said, adding that the state would ensure that the new policy would not burden the people.
Mohd Jafni added that the state government would set up a special task force that would oversee the management of public apartment units in Johor.
“We have 130 public flats in the state where the majority of the issues involve poor maintenance.
“The main cause for this is that only about 30% to 40% of the residents in the strata housing pay their maintenance fees to the joint management body,” he said.
However, these issues did not occur in the People’s Housing Project (PPR) and Rumah Sewa Kerajaan (RSK) housing units, he added.
