KRI board member, Datuk Hisham Hamdan; KRI chairman Nungsari Ahmad Radhi; and KRI research director Suraya Ismail launch the ‘Rethinking Housing: Between State, Market and Society’ report in Kuala Lumpur April 25, 2019. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
The Khazanah Research Institute housing expert told a forum on the topic here that the public and private sector have been unable to address structural defects in the housing sector due to a dearth of data, or in some cases, unwillingness by different parties to share them. Yet, federal agencies, as well as state and private developers often rely on limited sets of data usually compiled by specific agencies for very specific locations and purposes when planning, she noted.Suraya said the quagmire is best exemplified by the federal government’s attempt to coordinate housing supply outside the capital city through a centralised agency, which tends to have scarce data on the unique situation in the respective states.
“Mind you, we have many state agencies, say PR1MA or SPNB, which want to penetrate Kota Baru. Look at the condition of Kota Baru and let the state decide how many houses should be built at what price range, that’s what you should do.PR1MA is a government-linked company set up to supply affordable homes. SPNB is the National Housing Company. Both are technically federal agencies but critics said the two, as with most government departments, often work without any inter-agency coordination.