KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) are vigorously selling their own housing schemes to Malaysia’s cash-strapped middle class in the hope of winning support among young adults, especially in the country's richest state, Selangor.But a closer look at these schemes reveals some shortcomings including a lack of ways to curb speculation and questions of how really affordable they are in the first place.
The Selangor PR government had launched its scheme some three months after the BN federal government’s 1 Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA).
The message the PR wanted to send to the public was the same.
That it, like the BN government, was listening to people like Amir and Azlin, two newly-weds who are shopping for a house that they can afford on their combined RM5,000 income.
It’s not just house prices that they’re worried about, but how to service a house loan while dealing with the rising cost of food and fuel.
“God willing we will be able to afford one. We will really have to watch what we spend. There’s very little room for impulse buying,” says Azlin, a manager in a government statutory body.
According to government figures released in Parliament in 2008, about 79.3 per cent of Malaysians make RM5,000 or less a month.
The schemes make not only public policy-sense but also political sense. Each coalition is striving to prove that their programmes are better at tackling cost of living worries that will influence voters in the coming elections.
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