Abstract
Since late 1980s, Malaysia has been experiencing accelerated development in its housing sector as a result of rapid urbanisation and economic growth. A similar trend has prevailed in Sarawak where housing has thrived owing to growing market and active supply-demand dynamics. However, the cosmic increase in housing prices since 2012 has raised serious concerns among researchers with regard to how sustainable housing is in this country. Price spiral has led to an acute shortage of housing affordable to the middle-income group. Therefore, alternatives for dealing with housing affordability have to be worked on in steering the future direction of housing in the country. In dealing with such issue, a set of criteria encompassing social, economic and environmental influences would need to be identified and evaluated to determine the best alternative or option available for any particular area. A study was conducted on the city of Kuching and its hinterland. COPRAS was used. The results indicate that an area with a high degree of utility conforms best to sustainable housing affordability while the area with a lower degree of utility performs poorly in this respect. The originality of this research has contributed to new literature in dealing with sustainable housing affordability in Malaysia, particularly in the state of Sarawak.
Highlights
One of the principal aims of The National Malaysian Housing Policy is to provide housing that is affordable and of acceptable quality for each household
Laws relating to sustainable development through physical, economic, social and environmental well-being have been in existence to deal with housing development in Malaysia (Othman & Alias, 2011)
Sustainable development is new to take hold in Malaysia and remains open to debate. This has not stopped housing developers from leveraging on the idea of sustainability when it comes to marketing their houses (Abidin, 2010)
Summary
One of the principal aims of The National Malaysian Housing Policy is to provide housing that is affordable and of acceptable quality for each household. Sustainable development is new to take hold in Malaysia and remains open to debate. This has not stopped housing developers from leveraging on the idea of sustainability when it comes to marketing their houses (Abidin, 2010). In the housing policy of any country, much attention has been focussed on housing affordability (Ankhi & Joy, 2013; Zyed et al, 2016) and housing market (Majid and Said, 2013). Zyed et al (2016) found that young households often have to compete with other income groups for homeownership on account of very limited supply of housing affordable to them in the market. None of the local studies has explicitly focussed on the sustainable aspect of housing affordability
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