Phee said the state government could not contact applicants on the waiting list to send them offer letters for the available affordable housing units. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, Dec 31 — The Penang state government has up to 100,000 available affordable housing units in the state but it now faces a problem of contacting applicants to offer the units to them.

State executive councillor (exco) Phee Boon Poh said the state government could not contact applicants on the waiting list to send them offer letters for the available affordable housing units.

“We have taken proactive steps in the registration and offer process for the state’s housing projects but we are having problems contacting applicants on the waiting list,” he said in a statement here.

Phee said this issue has slowed down the application and offer process after the selection process was completed.

“The main problem we faced is that the personal information supplied was incomplete and the applicants did not update their latest contact number and address with the state housing department,” he said.

He added there are thousands in the bottom 40 per cent (B40) group who are interested in the affordable housing projects under the state government but these applicants will not be able to get their offer letters if the state government cannot reach them.

The state Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman cited the Jiran Residensi project in Butterworth as an example.

The low-medium cost apartment, with 750 sq ft units priced at RM72,500 each, has 353 available units.

“The state gave out offer letters to 779 eligible applicants but there is still a lot of balance units,” he said.

Many applicants could not be reached so many did not take up the offer, he said.

Phee added in another project, the state government offered 61 units but only 31 applicants received the offer while the rest could not be reached.

“The most common problems we faced were that the applicants provided wrong contact numbers, have switched numbers, wrong mailing addresses and issues with housing loans,” he said.

He said the loan issues were expected but the wrong contact numbers and mailing addresses meant the applicants had missed out on the offer.

“This meant many applicants missed the golden opportunity to own their own homes under the state’s affordable housing programme due to wrong contact numbers,” he said.

Phee called on applicants on the waiting list to update their personal details on erumah.penang.gov.my.

He said this will allow the government to contact them and send them offer letters for affordable housing units.

He also urged banks to be more lenient when it comes to loan applications by those purchasing affordable housing units.

When asked to comment, state local government, housing development and town and country planning committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the state has a long waiting list for affordable housing units.

“The main issue is still the loan issue but we hope this will soon be resolved by 2019,” he said.

The affordable housing units in Penang are capped at RM150,000 (750 sq ft); RM250,000 (800 sq ft); and RM300,000 (900 sq ft) for projects on the island.

The prices for projects in Seberang Perai are capped at RM150,000 (750 sq ft); RM 200,000 (800 sq ft); and RM250,000 (900 sq ft).

Prices for low-cost and low-medium cost housing units are set at RM42,000 (650 sq ft) and RM72,500 (700 sq ft) respectively.