Anwar claimed that elites would complain every time plans for an affordable housing project were announced, including a project in Taman Desa here.

He said friends would often advise him to ensure the high-income earners lived comfortably.

“But how about the poor? Where do they live if we don’t provide affordable homes? In Hutan Melintang?” he said, referring to a sub-district in Perak. “So I will disregard protests (by the elites) like this.”

Anwar said this at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Residensi Suria Madani project in Taman Desa.

The Residensi Suria Madani project by property developer Mah Sing Group, on 0.99ha in Taman Desa, involves the construction of two residential blocks with 800 units of houses,  measuring 800 sq ft each and priced at RM200,000.

Earlier today, FMT reported that 16 residents’ groups in Taman Desa had written to the prime minister to express their dissatisfaction with excessive development, saying it had led to traffic congestion and ruined the beauty of their surroundings.

The groups said they had voiced their objections to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) directly as well as through Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.

The letter was to express concern over approval given to property developer Mah Sing to build a housing project “with an excessively high plot ratio”, which the residents said would worsen their predicament.

In a separate letter, Kok had reportedly informed the prime minister that 10 new housing projects had come up in the area in recent years, amounting to a total of 5,887 new units, including 1,967 affordable homes.

She said the Mah Sing project would involve the construction of another 1,612 serviced apartment units and will also see another 800 units built under the government’s Residensi Madani affordable homes scheme.

The development will see the number of homes in the area rise to 8,299 units and possibly see the population in Taman Desa surge to 33,196.