Making houses more affordable

Photo: Bloomberg

MALAYSIA, through the Local Government and Housing Ministry, will lead the conversation on affordable housing through its chairmanship of Asean in 2025. Ahead of the Asean Summit on May 26-27, we must seriously consider a shift in the way we think about housing affordability in this country.

It is important to recognise that when we talk about housing affordability (or in this case, the lack of it), what we are really saying is that either (1) houses are too expensive, or (2) that people are not earning enough, or (3) that both statements are true.