PUTRAJAYA: The Government is on track to achieve its target of building affordable homes, with nearly 200,000 units built or being constructed in the last one and a half years.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said this was in line with the government's pledge to build 100,000 affordable housing units a year over a 10-year period.

"From July 2018 to Nov 2019, we completed 46,666 units.

"Those under construction make up another 151,933 units. In total, there are almost 200,000 units in 2018 and 2019.

"We are above our target, and it (the number of houses built) 'spills over' into the year 2020. Not that we can now relax. We must speed up the process of achieving our target," she said at her ministry headquarters near here on Tuesday (Jan 7).

Meanwhile, Zuraida said it was her hope that Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) would have the same standing as Singapore's Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats.

"We are trying to bring PR1MA in that direction. We want to see the housing industry be more centralised and standardised for easy regulation, monitoring and enforcement," she said.

She said the government had several ways of addressing the issues plaguing 65 PR1MA projects, including by allocating RM641mil from the Finance Ministry to settle outstanding payments for projects which were in various stages of construction.

From its direct sales and the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) 2019, she said PR1MA garnered 19,170 bookings, with 10,797 sales amounting to RM2.71bil.

While there would be no extension to the HOC this year, she said her ministry would encourage developers to offer incentives and discounts to prospective buyers.