KUALA LUMPUR: Koperasi Peserta-Peserta Felcra Malaysia Bhd (KPFB) has signed an agreement with Palladium Builders Sdn Bhd to build Mutiara KPFB Coop Residensi, a mixed-development project with a gross development value of RM2 billion in Rawang.
KPFB chairman Datuk Sabari Misran said through the development of Mutiara KPFB Coop Residensi, it hoped to address the issue of housing affordability among its members.
Sabari said the project would consist of 4,000 apartment units priced not more than RM500,000 each, a club-house, a community hall, sports courts, a swimming pool, prayer rooms and public space.
It will be built on a 17ha plot owned by KPFB’s subsidiary, Mutiara KPFB Sdn Bhd.
Sabari said construction was expected to start in February next year.
“The project is part of our initiative to help address the issue of home affordability in the country. This is not only for KPFB members but also for other cooperative members in the country,” he said after the signing ceremony, here, yesterday.
The agreement was signed between Sabari and Palladium Builders director Arun Prakash Subramaniam, and witnessed by Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia executive chairman Datuk Nordin Salleh.
Bank Negara Malaysia had said houses in Malaysia were “seriously unaffordable” by international standards.
Its Financial Surveillance Department director, Qaiser Iskandar Anwarudin, said according to the median multiple methodology developed by Demographia International and recommended by the World Bank, United Nations and Harvard University, a house was deemed affordable if it was priced not more than three times of the annual household income.
“The affordability (in Malaysia) has deteriorated with the median multiple affordability (the ratio of house price to household annual income) rising to 4.8 times in 2016 from 3.9 times in 2012,” he told a briefing recently.
He had said most Malaysians could not afford to buy newlylaunched houses with an average price of RM417,262 each, as the maximum affordable house price stood at RM282,000 nationwide.
