JLW suggests housing body like Singapore's HDB for Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur

MALAYSIA needs a single authority akin to Singapore's Housing and Development Board (HDB) to oversee the implementation of transparent, sound and coordinated public policies and to plan and manage the demand and supply of affordable homes, a property consultancy has suggested.

In an article on affordable housing, Jones Lang Wootton (JLW) expressed concern that incomes have lagged increases in home prices, and that Putrajaya's efforts to build more affordable homes have fallen short of targets. It also noted the lack of clarity on what an "affordable" home was, and said that policing of the housing programmes was weak.