PETALING JAYA: Youths in Penang, who make up 40% of the state's population, want a change in policy to check escalating house prices.
Penang 4B Youth information chief Hisham Abd Hamid said more than 90% of the young people in the state could not afford to buy homes in Penang because the state government appears to be more developer-centric.
“The Penang government must first control the escalating price of land, as it has a compounding effect on the house prices.
“We cannot put the blame entirely on the developers, as building affordable homes is not feasible when the land price is too high,” he said yesterday.
Hisham was responding to a report in The Star on Thursday on the drastic increase in house prices within just a year.
The Property Stock Report for the first quarter of this year showed house prices in Penang had far exceeded the 2014 price projected by Penang Institute's City, Urbanisation and Environment head Stuart MacDonald.
Valuation and Property Services Department data shows a drastic increase in residential property prices between the first quarter of last year and this year; condominium/apartment went up by 411%, detached units (up 103%), low-cost flats (157%) and other flats (339%).
Former Penang Municipal Council Town Planning Department actingdirector Khoo Boo Soon had said property prices had soared following increase in surcharges imposed by the state government. He had said the attributing factors include increase in infrastructure contribution charge from RM5 per sq ft to RM15, increase in re-zoning fee from 25% to 50% on the current land value, and contribution of RM120,000 per unit in lieu of building low-cost units.
“All these additional charges are passed on to the buyers, hence the drastic increase in house prices,” said Khoo.
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca) deputypresident Muhammad Sha'ani Abdullah said the charges were probably imposed to avoid speculation and profiteering by developers.
“However, genuine buyers should be exempted from re-zoning fees,” he said.
Penang Research Centre in Socio Economy (PReCISE) executive director Nizam Mahsha said the low- and middle-income groups were deprived of chances of owning homes because new housing projects focused on high-end units.
“No mechanism is in place to keep houses within an affordable range.
“Most people in Penang could not afford the houses built in the state,” he noted.
Penang Ratepayers Association president Datuk Eddy Choong said the state government should return the money collected from the developers to the people. - The Star
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