Kedah builders hail lower fees and easing of housing quotas

ALOR SETAR: The development charges imposed on housing developers in Kedah have been reduced from 20% to 10% with immediate effect.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir (pic) announced the decision that was made at the state executive council meeting on Wednesday.

“We have also decided to do away with the affordable housing and low-cost home quotas on Malay reserve land for projects below 100 units.

 

“For freehold land, developers will also be exempted from these quotas if their projects are below 50 units,” he said when launching the state-level Malaysian Property Expo at Star Parade here yesterday.

Under the state housing policy, developers are required to build 20% affordable houses and 20% low-cost units in their projects.

Mukhriz also said the state government had completed 28,082 of the 40,000 units it had targeted to build in Kedah from 2013 to 2018, adding that the completed units include affordable and low-cost homes.

Kedah/Perlis Real Estate and Housing Developers Associa-tion (Rehda) chairman Datuk Rick Cheng Wooi Seong welcomed Mukhriz’s announcement, saying that the decision would benefit some 70% of Kedah developers.

“For many small-time developers, it’s a burden to set aside 20% affordable houses and 20% low-cost units in their projects,” he said.

He also said developers would try to absorb the 10% development charges so as to not burden housebuyers.