KUALA LUMPUR – Development land located near public transport infrastructure should be allocated for affordable housing developments, instead of selling them to the highest bidder from the private sector said Minister of Youth and Sports Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
This was said when the Minister of Youth and Sports was addressing home ownership issues among youths and ways to overcome them at the launch of the Kunci Rumah Pertamaku program by consulting firm Far Capital Sdn Bhd, which aims to help deserving women and youths in Malaysia to own property of their own.
“Whenever a new infrastructure plan is announced – whether it is the MRT Line 3, or 4 or 5, the plots of land surrounding the infrastructure is immediately sold to the highest private bidder.We as the government need to ensure that the interest of the rakyat is taken care of and ensure that those who are staying around these transport systems are those who are underprivileged and need to use these public transport,” he said.
He explained that it is important to fight for the youths’ interest in this aspect in cabinet meetings.
This was explained after he pointed out that a lot of affordable houses being built are located too far away from the city centre with limited public transport and homeowners will end up paying much more to travel to work.
Saddiq pointed out that youths need to be educated on financial literary as many of them who are under 30 are declared bankrupt due to credit card debts; their credit worthiness is one of the reasons why their bank housing loan applications are rejected.
He also suggested that homes be built surrounding sports complexes that are under-utilised so that youths can stay there and utilise the facilities to lead a balanced lifestyle instead of having the facilities go to waste.
