The Malaysian Insight

FOR 19 years, odd-jobs worker Mohd Jamal Madar has been waiting for a People’s Housing Programme (PPR) unit to rent in Penang.

In those years, the 68-year-old lost his wife to diabetes and two of his four children. Only now has he received an offer to rent a PPR unit in George Town.

“I thought I would die waiting for a unit,” he told reporters at the state Housing Department today.

This morning, the department held a briefing with a group of long-waiting applicants, like Jamal, to offer them units at the Taman Manggis PPR flat for rent at RM128 a month.

Some units there have finally become available following the authorities’ eviction of 22 tenants who had occupied the units, meant for the poor, despite no longer being eligible. They have until tomorrow to move out.

“I have been renting a flat in Paya Terubong for RM500 a month. I live with one of my sons, who can’t work due to a heart problem.

“I have been interviewed a few times over the years but I never got an offer. I really thought I would never get a PPR unit,” Jamal said.

The Taman Manggis PPR offer also came as a relief to Chew Kim Choo, 76, who said she needed to find somewhere to move to quickly before the village house she is renting on Perak Lane is demolished to make way for new development.

She applied for a PPR unit in 2003. She and her sons had been forced to move several times over the years when the houses they were renting had to make way for different developments.

“The house we are staying in now will be torn down this year. We don’t know when exactly. 

“So, getting this offer is a relief, even though I don’t know when I can move,” she said, adding that she could hardly afford the rental fees in other places.

Chew is unemployed and her two sons are odd-jobs workers.

Contract cleaner Zainal Abidin Sheikh Dauh, 55, has also been waiting since 2013 for a PPR flat.

In the past, he had to cram his family into a one-room flat at Taman Free School. As the place was small, his older children, in their early 20s, had to live with their grandparents.

“The youngest, who is 6, stays with me and my wife. We had to make do.

“Before Taman Free School, we stayed at my brother-in-law’s. When he could no longer accommodate us, we moved to Taman Free School about four years ago.”

State housing exco Jagdeep Singh Deo said PPR’s are meant to help people who cannot afford to buy low- and low-medium cost homes.

Low-cost homes are priced at RM42,000 while low-medium cost homes are RM72,500.

Jagdeep, however, added that it was high time the PPR scheme be reviewed to allow tenants to rent out their homes.

He said this could help clear the long waiting list for PPR units in Penang, the state with the lowest number of PPR units at 999.

Under a rent and buy scheme, tenants can pay a monthly rental fee until they have paid off the price of the units to own them.

Penang had introduced a rent-to-own pilot project in Jawi, Nibong Tebal, a few years ago. Jagdeep said units there were almost sold out.

“We have two other projects coming up in Bukit Minyak and Balik Pulau, where we can consider extending this rent-to-own scheme.

“The project in Balik Pulau will have 1,153 low-cost units. We can take half the units to offer under the rent-to-own scheme. It can help cater to those on the PPR waiting list.” – March 5, 2019.