Decision to build 210,000 houses below RM250,000 each in Budget 2018 made after review of PR1MA scheme

KUALA LUMPUR: The government decided to build 210,000 affordable houses after conducting a review on the PR1MA housing scheme, said Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.
He said this at the launch of Maybank Islamic’s rent-to-own product, Houzkey, today but did not elaborate on whether there would be further changes to PR1MA’s scheme, which currently caters for homes costing up to RM400,000.
Earlier this week, Johari said the RM1.5 billion allocation for Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia to build 210,000 units priced under RM250,000 is in acknowledgement of the unaffordability of PR1MA homes. The allocation is part of Budget 2018.
Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia, whose mandate is to provide affordable housing for the M40 group, has been building homes priced between RM100,000 and RM400,000 with one of its recent projects, PR1MA @ Jalan Jubilee, even exceeding the RM400,000 level.
The largest unit in the Jalan Jubilee development, a 1,089 sq ft unit, goes for RM445,000. It is not known whether PR1MA will limit its future developments to houses priced RM250,000 and below.