The excitement of some residents receiving the keys to occupy a new house in Block A, Taman Nagasari, Prai here more than a month ago turned into concern due to the presence of a group of foreigners who are said to also rent there.

It is understood that about 10 of the total 150 units of low-cost apartments in the block have started to be occupied by locals while most of the other occupants have not done so.

However, according to the residents, the number of foreigners who rented the apartment is more, involving about 20 units and some live there earlier than the residents who should be.

Even more disappointing, they said, there were apartment units that were misused to be workers’ dormitories equipped with My Sejahtera QR Code openly at the entrance.

Residents’ representative, Amirul Adli Ahmad, 28, said, according to the agreement, the 11-storey apartments worth RM42,000 per unit built by the state government cannot be rented out to either locals or foreigners.

“So, we wonder how these apartment units can be rented to foreigners at will by the owner. In fact, we were informed that a grocery store will be built on the ground floor of the apartment while commercial activities are also not allowed to be carried out in this block, ”he said.

He and several other residents were met by reporters while receiving a visit from Bukit Tengah State Assemblyman (ADUN), Gooi Hsiao Leung to complain about the matter, here last weekend.

Commenting further, Amirul Adli said, he and the rest of the residents there wanted the issue resolved as soon as possible to prevent more foreigners from living there until the situation became out of control.

“Residents here have also agreed to use access cards to control those who come in and out of this block in the future.” said the father of two.

In the meantime, Hsiao Leung said, the issue of misuse of residential units for rent to foreigners like this should not happen because the apartments are reserved for low-income locals who do not yet own a house.

“I have also written a letter to the State Housing, Local Government, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo after receiving complaints from residents and asking the state government to investigate the matter accordingly,” he said.

Source: Utusan Malaysia