Can Low Cost Housing in Malaysia be Considered as Affordable Housing ?

Abstract

"Formal housing in Malaysia introduced and implemented a concept of Low Cost Housing (LCH) during the Fourth Malaysia Plan (1981-1985). During this period, overall goals of housing policy were to ensure that all Malaysians had access to adequate housing. To meet this objective, emphasis was given to increase the supply of Low Cost Housing (LCH) in urban areas especially to the lower income groups. LCH is the lowest cost housing provision in Malaysia developed specifically for lower income group and may be delivered through public or private sector developers. Government has tabled a ""People's Budget"" to provide affordable housing for low-income groups and believed that LCH can be considered as ëaffordable housing' based on the price, subsidized by government, achieving minimum standard of quality and allocated only to low income people with several eligibilities through the ëOpen Registration System' by Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG). Social housing in the United Kingdom (UK) is considered as affordable housing, provided and managed by local authorities-commonly called council housing-as well as by housing associations and other organisations regulated by UK government. This paper will try to define affordable housing in the Malaysia context, identify the differentiation between this context and social housing context in the UK and also seek to understand the nature of providing social housing as affordable housing in the UK. "