Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the government is also facing a challenge of ensuring the welfare of the urban poor, especially city dwellers in public and private low-cost or People’s Housing Project (PPR) flats.
“In facing those challenges, the government, through the federal territories ministry, had recently launched a guide to implement redevelopment of Kuala Lumpur in old and uneconomical areas, such as at the Sri Labuan public housing area,” he said when handing over house keys to owners of new apartments at Residensi Razakmas 2 here today.
He said the guide was also aimed at ensuring that those areas would be given a facelift to make them vibrant and competitive, which would also increase their property values.
Muhyiddin said the guide was only part of the government’s initiative to help the people own affordable and comfortable houses.
He said the government had given assistance to people from all walks of life over the past year, including spending RM40 million to carry out maintenance work at all low- and medium-cost flats and apartments.
“This includes work to fix the roof and staircases, paint the buildings and repair utilities at 63 housing projects under DBKL as well as 13 projects in Sabah. All these were done to ensure the people’s welfare and safety,” he said.
Muhyiddin also said the completion of the Residensi Razakmas 2 project after a 10-year delay was proof of the sincerity, focus and efforts given by the government to ensure the people’s well-being.
A total of 395 owners of Residensi Razakmas 2, all previous residents of the Sri Labuan flats, received the keys to their new units.
Meanwhile, Annuar told reporters that DBKL was also planning to redevelop the 4ha site at the Sri Labuan flats with more affordable houses.
“Of course, we will redevelop the site because it’s a part of our urban renewal programme.
“We will demolish it (the old flats) later and more affordable homes will be built in the area. With 10 acres, we should be able to build another 3,000 affordable homes.”
He said owners of Sri Labuan flats had received cash aid of RM3,000 (for one-room house owners) or RM7,000 (for two-room house owners) to help them move into their new homes at Residensi Razakmas2.
They can also request to use DBKL lorries to help in the moving-out process, he added.