Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung said Datuk Seri Najib Razak was equally concerned about providing affordable homes for the people in the country.
Affordable homes are units priced between RM120,000 to RM300,000.
“The Prime Minister will say something in the budget which will reflect his concern,” he told reporters at the ministry’s Hari Raya gathering, here, today.
The Prime Minister is poised to address the issue of affordable homes in the 2013 Budget, the revealed.
Also present was ministry secretary-general Datuk Arpah Abdul Razak.
In the meantime, Chor’s ministry would comb through ideas derived from discussions with the Real Estate, Housing and Developers Association (REHDA) and Association of House Buyers and Architects Association on providing affordable homes, before presenting it to the cabinet next week as a guide.
He however refused to divulge details of the proposals made.
Chor said that affordable housing was not an issue that was endemic to Malaysia, but one that nations like China and the United Kingdom were grappling with.
The government, he said, had since last year come to the aid of the ‘rakyat’ in owning affordable homes by introducing the 1Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA).
Meanwhile, on a separate matter Chor is encouraging resident associations to emulate the crisis relief squad which is a popular group in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
The group, which comprises various races, take turns to patrol the neighbourhood very much like the Rukun Tetangga, save for the fact that they carry with them walkie talkies.
This allows the police to receive real time information on any crime taking place.
“Police see these people as front liners as they would be at the crime scene first. This initiative has helped a lot,” he said.
