The Johor State Housing Development Corp (PKPJ) will use Singapore's Home and Development Board's (HDB) building concept as a model for providing comprehensive affordable housing plans in all of the state's districts.
The HDB is Singapore's public housing authority. It plans and develops the republic's housing estates, including the construction of homes and the transformation of towns to provide a high-quality living environment for all. For the convenience of its citizens, it provides a variety of economic, recreational, and social amenities in its communities.
To get started, Johor Menteri Besar, Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, said PKPJ would have to take drastic measures by collaborating with other agencies such as local governments, the Ministry of Finance, the Employees Provident Fund, PR1MA Corporation Malaysia, the Town and Country Planning Department (PLANMalaysia), and banks to create a detailed and focused housing development planning database.
According to him, PKPJ will also be responsible for ensuring that all development plans are carried out according to schedule and timeline, allowing for the provision of affordable housing to meet local demand.
He hoped that the coordination with other departments, this intention and commitment will be successfully realised.
"The main necessity of every individual is a home as a place to seek shelter and live happily with the family," he wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.
During his four-day working visit to the republic, Onn Hafiz said he visited the Singapore HDB, which has built over 1.2 million units since its inception in 1960.
HDB was created to provide clean living conditions to replace the unsanitary slums and crowded squatter settlements that were common during Singapore's housing crisis. It had constructed 54,000 units by 1965.
Today, 80 per cent of Singapore's residents live in HDB flats, with around 90 per cent of them owning their unit.