PETALING JAYA: Starting next year, big data analytics and artificial intelligence will be used to address the mismatch between housing supply and demand, which has led to unsold overhang units.
Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming said these are among the measures implemented under the National Housing Policy 2026-2035 to provide one million affordable homes by 2035 through a more comprehensive, integrated and data-driven approach.
The Finance Ministry, he added, has approved the use of big data to better match housing supply with demand based on locality, income levels and market needs.
Nga said the current RM300,000 ceiling commonly used to define affordable housing is a “one-size-fits-all” approach that does not reflect differing needs.
Based on data from the National Property Information Centre, he said affordable housing in the Klang Valley could be priced at about RM500,000, compared with about RM300,000 in Kelantan.
“Imagine affordable housing in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, being priced the same as in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.
“The (new data-driven approach) will ensure that when developers build homes for consumers, they do so based on pricing that better reflects the reality on the ground,” he said in his keynote address at the launch of the policy yesterday.
Supported by six focus areas, 17 strategies and 59 action plans, the policy is aimed at making the property sector more transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of the people, he added.
The policy, he said, will address long-standing housing woes, including strata management issues and abandoned projects.
Under the policy, three proposed laws, namely, the Property Development Act, Building Managers Act and Rent Tenancy Act, as well as amendments to the Strata Management Act 2013, would be introduced.
Nga said the Property Development Act, which is at its final stage (of drafting), would provide a comprehensive legal framework for property development, including commercial properties such as shop lots, that are not covered under the existing Housing Development Act.
The Building Managers Act, he said, would strengthen the management and maintenance of strata properties, while the Rent Tenancy Act would provide a regulatory framework for the rental sector.
Meanwhile, amendments to the Strata Management Act would strengthen the accountability, transparency and governance of Joint Management Bodies and Management Corporations, said Nga.
“Malaysia has almost three million strata units across more than 27,000 schemes.
“Proper management is crucial to the well-being of residents as issues such as faulty lifts, as well as poor cleanliness and maintenance, directly affect their quality of life and value of the property,” he said, adding that the ministry would continue to explore a wider range of financing options, including Rent-to-Own, shared ownership and fixed-rate mortgages to strengthen existing instruments such as the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme.
To prevent new housing projects from becoming sick or abandoned, Nga said an option-to-purchase (OTP) mechanism would be introduced by the end of this year.
The mechanism, he explained, would allow developers to withdraw from a project within a specified period if sales are poor, with buyers receiving a full refund of their deposits and bank interest.
Buyers who change their minds during the specified period would also be allowed to withdraw, subject to administrative charges and interest payable to the developer.
“For example, without OTP, once construction has started on a 30-storey development, the developer cannot simply stop. But if there are no sales and no revenue, the developer may eventually collapse and walk away. This then becomes a social problem that has to be dealt with,” said Nga.
He said the reforms would be monitored monthly to ensure that there are no more abandoned housing projects by 2030.
