KULAI: Johor has expanded its Perumahan Kasih Johor (PKJ) housing assistance programme to help more people own homes, including those in the M40 income group, as part of a wider strategy to ease cost-of-living pressures for the rakyat.
Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said the initiative reflects the state government’s commitment to ensuring that Johoreans have access to comfortable, safe and affordable homes, which form one of the largest components of household expenditure.
“This is a meaningful programme that is very close to the heart of the state leadership because it involves housing, one of the biggest costs of living for our rakyat,” he said at the handover ceremony for the PKJ initiative held at Dewan Serbaguna Bandar Putra here on Saturday (Jan 24).
Onn Hafiz added that the state government had been working on the affordable housing agenda since early 2022 and that the effort also received attention from the Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who called for housing to be prioritised alongside economic and educational development.
He said the state initially targeted 21,000 units under Rumah Mampu Milik Johor (RMMJ) by 2030, but revised the target to more than 100,000 units following demands.
“Before this people used to say ‘rumah mampu lihat (able only to view)’, but now in Johor it is truly rumah mampu milik (affordable homes),” he said.
Onn Hafiz also rejected claims that the state was selective in channelling assistance, saying that aid was not based on race, political affiliation or social background.
“Whoever is entitled must be helped. There is no cronyism. Many recipients today do not even know me or state housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor,” he said.
Onn Hafiz added that the PKJ initiatives include a new RM5,000 one-off assistance for first-time affordable home buyers involving 20,000 recipients and RM80mil in allocation.
“We have increased ‘Bantuan Masuk Rumah Pertama’ from RM1,000 to RM2,000 per recipient starting 2026, with RM17.83mil allocation.
“We also expanded the RM2,000 assistance for home entry costs to the M40 group purchasing homes priced at RM500,000 and below,” he added.
Onn Hafiz, who is also the Machap assemblyman, urged elected representatives to disseminate the information as more people are expected to qualify.
He stressed that PKJ was only one of four major approaches under the state government’s cost-of-living framework known as Bantuan Bangsa Johor.
Onn Hafiz added the other approaches were Jaringan Kasih Johor, with 16 initiatives worth RM550mil benefiting more than one million recipients, including food aid and medical assistance.
“We also have Bantuan Kasih Johor (BKJ) with RM220mil allocated for 2025–2026 involving 37 targeted initiatives for orphans, single mothers, senior citizens, OKU, the poor and cancer patients, providing assistance between RM200 and RM2,000.
“While for the youth, we have Belia Kasih Johor, supporting 589,000 young recipients through 22 initiatives including back-to-school aid, scholarships, fees, laptops, meals and entrepreneurship support,” he added.
Onn Hafiz said Johor’s ability to channel assistance to the rakyat was supported by strong economic performance.
During his three years and nine months in office, he said that Johor attracted RM253bil in investments, created over 70,000 jobs and maintained unemployment at 2.5%.
“The state also recorded RM91.1bil investment between January and September 2025, making it the highest among Malaysian states. Johor’s GDP grew 6.4% and state revenue hit a historic RM2.67bil, while agriculture sales reached RM27.2bil.
“With these achievements, every sen must be returned to the people of Johor. What is the point of recording billions in investment if the rakyat does not feel it?” he said.
