Govt mulls ‘Youth City’ housing concept

KUALA LUMPUR: Aside from the continuous effort by Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia to build affordable homes, the government is mulling over a new concept of public housing dubbed “Youth City” to supply more affordable houses to Malaysians. Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the authority is planning to build two youth cities — one on the fringes of Klang Valley, and another in Sabah. Abdul Rahman said the idea for a youth city was first mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at Malaysia’s National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) meeting recently and his ministry, together with the ministries of youth and sports and rural and regional development, have been mandated to spearhead the project. “The objective is to build affordable houses for younger people with an environment that caters to their needs and lifestyle,” he said, adding that the new youth cities would be built near highways for ease of connectivity,” he told reporters after launching the sixth international conference on World Class Sustainable Cities (WCSC) 2014 yesterday. “Many ideas and suggestions have been put forward … We may build the cities from scratch or identify places that are not fully developed yet,” he said. WCSC 2014, organised by the Kuala Lumpur branch of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Planners and the Institute of Architects Malaysia, aims to learn from best practices around the world on elements and factors necessary for world-class sustainable cities. Abdul Rahman acknowledged that property and land prices in Kuala Lumpur have been increasing, but said “the trick is to have connectivity so that we can have it [the youth city] slightly far [from Kuala Lumpur]”. And with lower property prices, residents would have to stay in smaller units, he said, adding that the minimum units in each youth city would be 4,000 to 5,000, and would cater to people aged 40 and below. “Certainly, there must be some restrictions in terms of age and the size of the houses. We will probably concentrate on smaller apartments.” He also noted that the activities created in those areas would mostly be dominated by the creative industry and online businesses, adding that the proposed youth cities could be built on government or private-owned tracts. “We are open to all ideas. Obviously, if it is on government land, it will be cheaper. It’s also easier for you to create a city that is sustainable when you start from scratch rather than taking an old city and try to transform it to a sustainable city. Just like what we did to Putrajaya and Cyberjaya, it is more organised in that sense,” he said. This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 26, 2014. For more information on Building and Construction event, please visit www.asiapacificevents.com