Budget 2026 to strengthen housing reform, expand access to affordable housing

The Star

As preparations for the upcoming Budget 2026 are underway, the government will also examine support mechanisms to strengthen housing reform, with a particular focus on expanding access to affordable housing.  Speaking to reporters after launching the Property Information System Malaysia (PRISM) 2.0 on Thursday (Sept 4), Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said reforms under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) are also designed to address housing challenges, including the development of new models.   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Regarding the event, can you comment on the residential units overhang?

00:04Because I think it has been on the rise since the Q1 from the report by the Conditioning Department.

00:11I think it's important to look at it as an overall.

00:15The key for us is overall market still is stable.

00:20And the government continues to look at ways and means to support the segment in the market.

00:26And in this instance, if you look at what we put into RMKT, there are some priorities in terms of housing reform.

00:33So our housing reform focuses on allowing development of affordable housing.

00:40So that will be a priority for Malaysia going forward.

00:43And we're looking at new models to help Malaysians to be able to own and afford housing.

00:51That means the utilization of concepts such as brand to own will be something that we will continue to push.

00:58And hopefully also trying to reduce instances where projects are not completed and abandoned projects are a challenge.

01:05We're trying to move the system towards build themselves.

01:09As opposed to people pay progressive payment and later on, the project gets abandoned.

01:14That is an issue for the buyer.

01:16What we also do is we have an opportunity looking at the budget that's coming up in October.

01:21We will look also at the support mechanisms to help in the direction that we want in terms of housing reform.

01:27And the priority is actually for people are looking for affordable housing.

01:31And this is one area that we will look at.

01:33So do you think the causes, is it because of affordability or just like normal fluctuation in the residential market?

01:40I think if you look at the concept that the Kerajaan Mandani has been focusing on,

01:44which is meningkatkan siling, meningkatkan lantai,

01:47one of the key areas is actually to increase the wealth that exists in society.

01:55So we've seen us do a lot of labor market reform by pushing in minimum wage, increasing wage levels,

02:04encouraging progressive wage, and also encouraging companies to adopt living wage as a base rather than just minimum wage.

02:11And I think that is one of the big drives in order to balance wealth in the country along the way.

02:20So we hope by doing a lot more of these reforms, we will allow people to have more affordability.

02:25And if you've seen some of the programs that the government has run, like our SJKP scheme,

02:30that's allowing people that doesn't have steady income, yeah,

02:34they can go and get the SJKP guarantee mechanism, yeah, and that helps them to actually get on to the block together.

02:40So we have to look at creative solutions like this to actually address the issue.

02:45But the most important area is fixing the basis of what is affordability of the country,

02:51and also addressing the income base.

02:55That's why under RMK 13, we're also trying to address share of labor to the whole tech.

03:01So we're trying to drive it up from 33% to 40% within the RMK 13.

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