LECTURE 4: HOUSING… AN ACT OR A PRODUCT

Housing provision has played an important part of the government’s social policy in Malaysia since independence. Housing can be considered as a building in which people live in, a place to stay and to live. It can act as a shelter for protection. It is also a place to display products or a place for business to be conducted and gain profits.

Housing is a complex matter since it involves a total spectrum of housing and human settlement issues. In order to come out with a proper housing development, one must take into account various perspectives such as socioeconomic, rules and regulations, political aspects, building materials, market expectations and other parties which involves in the project. Since housing involves a large spectrum of aspects and parties, thus there are many problems arises in the housing industry.

Nowadays, housing becomes a problem ever since Malaysia is a nation.

Problems in housing:

Nowadays, houses are expensive. Therefore, it is not accessible to everyone.
The space is limited. For example, the price of the land in Penang is increasing every year because the space of the land on this island is limited.
Landslide due to the problems on the site, improper construction or lack of supervision.

Why housing is a problem?

As the price of the oil increases, it will indirectly affect the pricing of the real estate. Therefore, the cost of the houses increases too.
Money matters when in comes to housing.
Citizens got to earn more money in order to purchase a house.

ACTORS in housing:

Land owners
Developers
Occupants
Designers: architects, planner and interior designers
Contractors
Government

Housing (a noun) as a PRODUCT:

There are low, medium and high cost houses exist in Malaysia.
Intention of having low, medium and high cost houses: the medium cost will pay for the low cost houses by subsidizing the people who buy the low cost house.
Form: aggregation and division.
There are different types of houses, e.g.: terrace, detached, semi-detached and bungalow.
Management of the houses can be by the buyers. As condominium, the building owner can hire a guard to look after the safety of the occupants in the condominium.

Housing (a verb) as an ACT:

1. Hand keys.
- Occupants can move into a ready made house by providing them keys.
2. Structure and infill.
- With basic facilities and infill on existing structure. It depends on
affordability.
3. Core house.
- water, electricity
- It is a basic house with rooms. If the occupants are not satisfied with the
design, they can do renovation or extension.
4. Site and services.
- Build on existing infrastructure.
5. Land
- Identify the land that the owner using whether it is a private land or government land.

Rules:

Follow the housing policies set by the government.

Site:

Land in Malaysia.

Intention:

To provide comfort to the occupants.
Malaysia has considered housing as a basic need and one of the main sectors in national economy.





The increase in demand and supply in the housing sector is largely due to the increase in population and rising affluence. The actual progress of low cost housing development has not reached its expected level. This unsatisfied progress is discrediting the social contribution of the program. I hope that there is research to be carried out which will provide the basis to design and develop the policy recommendation to avoid problem of housing abandonment in Malaysia in the future. This is important to ensure that the government housing policy to provide affordable quality housing that fulfills the needs of housing purchasers in Malaysia.