Conference

Built Environment International Conference
Paper presented: Public Housing In Malaysia And Rent Arrears Issue
Held on: 3-4 Dec 2007, USM Penang

Paper Abstract:
ABSTRACT

Public housing is a type of housing provided by the government for the low-income groups. There are various categories of such public housing provided by the government namely Public Low Cost Housing Project, Integrated Public Housing Project (MTEN), New Policy Public Tenanted Housing Project and New Policy Public Owned Housing Project. Rapid urbanization has resulted in chronic needs for housing especially for the lower income groups. The housing policy formulated by the government was unable to stem the ever-increasing public housing problems. However, the government has tried utilizing all resources to try to increase public obligation towards the provision of low cost public housing as entrenched in the five-year plan. The government has provided various facilities for the target groups; if they were not able to buy at subsidized prices, these target groups were given a choice either to rent or buy houses through hire-purchase schemes. Although the government has implemented various methods to provide better living opportunities for the lower income groups, it is still burdened by other problems including the issue of rent arrears. Rent is a form of income for the management. The issue of rent arrears, if not resolved speedily, will become a worrying issue and cause losses to the government. Rent collection is utilized to pay for all costs relating to the management of public housing maintenance. As a result, physical investment could not be done to improve occupier comfort. Hence, it is necessary to identify the reasons why rent arrears exist among public housing occupants in order to mitigate the problem. Therefore the ultimate objective of this paper is to identify the causes of rent arrears in public housing.

Keywords: public housing Malaysia, low-income groups, rent arrears