PETALING JAYA: The online registration for 80,000 affordable homes to be built in 50 cities and towns under the Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) will be officially launched in Penang on Saturday.

Qualified applicants will be able to take part in the balloting of the houses which will be built at the cost of about RM10bil over the next three years.

“People in Penang will be the first to register and benefit from the Government’s affordable urban housing programme,” PR1MA Berhad’schief executive officer Datuk Mutalib Alias told a media briefing yesterday.

He said work on the 333ha PR1MA Seremban project was expected to begin early next year while parcels of urban land in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang, Johor, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak had been identified for the project.

“PR1MA will develop 50,000 homes while the additional 30,000 would be built through collaboration with established private developers.

“We will provide affordable units to meet the needs of urban dwellers,” he said.

Mutalib said individuals and married couples with a monthly collective household income of between RM2,500 and RM7,500 a month were eligible to register for PR1MA homes.

Landed and high-rise properties are priced between RM100,000 and RM400,000.

He said PR1MA adopted a flexible definition of eligible household income so family members who qualified could also register individually.

Applicants must be Malaysians aged above 21 and who do not own more than one home and are working or living in the area where the project is being developed.

Mutalib said applicants could list five areas of choice of locations, adding that they would be alerted of PR1MA projects coming up for balloting via e-mail or SMS.

“An open registration system will be used for PR1MA under which anyone eligible can apply. Balloting for the homes will be independently audited and done in a transparent manner.

He said the PR1MA Act 2012, to come into force on Jan 1, would ensure the fast-track implementation of PR1MA housing projects.

The Act would pave the way for the formation of the PR1MA Advisory Council chaired by the Prime Minister while the Approval Implementation Committee would ease red tape.

Based on a survey carried out in 2009, more than 850,000 people with income of between RM2,500 and RM7,500 a month had not bought their own homes while 1.6 mil of those in the income bracket were home owners.

About 60% of the demand for affordable homes was from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Penang, Pahang and Sabah and Sarawak.

Source: The Star