KUCHING: Homes built under the 1Malaysia People’s Housing (PR1MA) programme in Sarawak will be at least 20% cheaper than the market price, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The Prime Minister said this would make the houses more affordable for the people.
“Over 9,000 units will be built in eight projects in Sarawak.
“We have decided that each unit will be sold at a price 20% lower than market price,” he said when opening a PR1MA roadshow at the Old State Legislative Assembly Building here yesterday.
Najib said the PR1MA programme allowed people who would otherwise not be able to afford a house, to buy their dream home.
“This is more than just about selling houses. The fact is that we are increasing the wealth of the people as they need to spend less on a house,” he said.
Najib said it was the Government’s aim to see every family owned a quality home at a reasonable price.
He said the Government would continue to implement affordable housing projects as promised in Barisan Nasional’s manifesto in the 2013 general election.
“We pledged to build one million affordable homes in five years and PR1MA has been tasked with delivering 500,000 units,” he said.
PR1MA, in a media release, said that its houses in Sarawak would generally be priced below RM300,000, depending on their location and type.
It said 9,185 units of quality affordable homes had been approved for construction in its Vista Tunku, Matang, Matang 2, Semenggoh, Sibu, Petra Jaya 2, Sungai Plan and Bintawa projects.
The Matang project was opened for balloting at the roadshow, offering 912 apartment units at prices starting from RM279,000.
Earlier in his speech at the “Inclusive Malaysia, a digital nation” programme at Kuching Waterfront, Najib took a swipe at former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for promoting the citizens’ declaration.
“He held an event to announce a people’s declaration, but in truth, it is not a people’s declaration.
“Don’t make a people’s declaration to confuse the people.
“Don’t make a personal agenda a people’s agenda.
“It is not about the people, it is about your personal agenda,” Najib said.
He added that the declaration was neither determined, written nor agreed to by Malaysians.
“A large portion of Sarawakians, for instance, do not agree with what has happened,” he said.
On another matter, he promised that rural mobile Internet for the state would be improved soon.
“I will come again next month to launch cellular 3G/4G in the second phase.
“Longhouses, short houses will all get it. We’ll improve urban broadband to 10Mbps, and rural to four to 10Mbps.”
Cost estimates for high speed broadband in Sarawak alone was RM1.8bil, he said.-thestar
