THE federal government recently announced that it is initiating a new housing project specially geared towards middle-income earners to enable them to afford good quality residential units. The government itself would build these new estates on identified sites in urban areas like the Federal Territory and Penang, through private-public partnerships.

At about the same time, the Penang government said it was coming up with a new social housing scheme on 60ha in Batu Kawan on the mainland. The project would entail affordable high-rise and low-medium cost units that would cost eligible citizens not more than RM220,000 each.

What is interesting in both cases is that the focus is not just on making homes reasonably priced; but that there is an unprecedented and palpable emphasis on ensuring that the built environments would be comfortable and pleasant.

Compared to previous years when governments were bent on manufacturing mass housing with priority on spewing out units in huge volumes, the focus seems to have been finally extended to making sure such projects are actually liveable. For it is a known fact that many social housing schemes, especially those undertaken in the 60s and 70s, are today effectively no better than ghettos and slums – characterised by cramped environments and poor upkeep, and riddled with social problems.

The authorities are now embarking on programmes to improve flat complexes that are poorly managed and badly in need of maintenance and repair. Many have poorly-kept facilities like lifts, drainage, ventilation and lighting.

The situation even prompted the Penang chief of police to bemoan the fact that the overcrowded and restrictive conditions in these housing estates had in fact helped breed crime.

“What is much needed in Penang is not only low-cost and middle low-cost housing, but liveable residential areas with ample economic and social opportunities,” Nizam Mahshar, executive director of the Penang Research Centre in Socio-Economy (Precise) summed up.

Nizam insists that this should not be too much of a challenge to developers. Many of them had been “innovative and creative enough” to be able to cut hills and slopes and reclaim seas to build houses, he said.

The concern over liveable housing comes on the heels of alarm bells over the soaring cost of houses in Malaysia. The average price of units in Penang is around RM540,000 – 14 times that of the average household income, while that in Kuala Lumpur is about RM390,000 – almost six times the average income. Comparatively, the international standard for house prices is recommended at only three to four times the average household income.

Non-governmental groups like Precise have expressed concern that the proliferation of luxury projects priced well above a million ringgit each is causing lower-income communities to be marginalised.

The situation is serious. It is estimated that 46.7% of Penang’s population comes under this group, with average household incomes of RM3,000 and below. Of these, increasing numbers are now being pushed to mainland Seberang Perai, Kulim and Sungai Petani where prices are closer to their means.

Perhaps one of the biggest rays of hope yet may lie in the recently gazetted Penang Housing Board which comes into effect on July 1, for the board will give the state the muscle it needs to promote more affordable and liveable housing.

Very critically, the policy will also include measures to clamp down on undue speculative practices, particularly targeting developers who sell off units in new housing projects in large quantities to parties that later re-sell them at prices way above normal market rates.

There have been other interesting measures tossed about. For example, the Penang State Assembly was told recently that the state is considering a policy to impose a special charge on super-condominium projects. Payments to the state’s two municipal councils would then be used to cross-subsidise the development of low-cost housing in Penang.

While such measures are now increasingly aired in the news, the common people will surely hope that this shift in the authorities’ mindset – overdue though it may be – to actually stress on liveability in mass housing, is here to stay.

** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the June 16, 2011, edition of theSun. Himanshu is theSun’s Penang bureau chief.