Jagdeep Singh Deo, state executive councillor in charge of housing, town and country planning, said the Penang government was committed to building 10,000 affordable homes, ranging from RM42,000 to RM400,000.
Between 2008 and 2015, he said, the DAP-controlled state government had built 8,092 affordable housing units priced at RM42,000 and 8,107 units priced at RM72,500.
Comparatively, he said the previous BN state government only built 4,355 units priced at RM42,000 and 769 units priced at RM72,500 between 2001 and 2007.
Currently, he pointed out that the state government had in the pipeline 12 projects to build 22,512 units of various types of affordable homes in all five districts in Penang.
“Penang BN leaders had stated that the current state administration was not providing affordable housing priced at RM42,000 and RM72,500, and the cheapest affordable housing available in Penang is RM400,000.
“This is a blatant misrepresentation of the actual status of the provision of affordable housing by the current Penang government,” said Jagdeep in a statement today.
He argued that statistics proved that the current state government was committed to providing affordable homes priced at RM42,000 and above.
He said the state government had recently approved projects to build 3,796 low-cost units and 5,246 low-medium-cost units.
“Clearly, the record shows that the previous state government, in the same period of time, delivered far fewer of such affordable homes, priced at RM42,000 and RM72,500 respectively,” claimed Jagdeep.
Penang Gerakan had asked the state government to explain how Penangites, especially those aspiring to own their first home, could afford “affordable” homes when they were priced at RM400,000.
Penang Gerakan Youth Legal and Public Complaints Bureau Chief Jason Loo Jieh Sheng claimed that Penangites were not getting value for money when buying “affordable” homes as they had to fork out RM400,000 merely to own a two-bedroom home of 650 square feet.
He pointed out that during the time of former Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon, a two-room low-cost unit was priced at RM42,000 and a three-room low-medium-cost unit was priced at RM72,500.
But today, under DAP, prices had increased by 10 times for low-cost homes and seven times for low-medium-cost homes.
For one to buy a RM400,000 “affordable” home, he said one would need to fork out RM2,052 per month on loan instalments.
During the state assembly session in November 2014, Jagdeep told the house that the DAP-led state government would take credit for the implementation of all low-cost and low-medium cost housing projects in the previous six years even though the projects were all approved under the previous BN administration.