On Tuesday, April 18, Negeri Sembilan's Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan suggested that the vetting and approval of civil servants' eligibility for the 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing Programme (PPA1M) be localised according to each state and handled by the respective state government.

Presently, vetting and approval of applications for PPA1M are centralised at the Federal level.

"This suggestion is to prioritise and boost the number of civil servants within each state to be eligible for the programme" he emphasised, commenting that 90 percent of today's recipients is actually from the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, and not from Negeri.

"And it would also be good if we can categorise and segregate applicants by their age group, as apparently, there are civil servants in their senior years who have not bought their own house" Mohamad said at the handing of keys ceremony to 20 proud owners of the Taman Berlian PPA1M units here.

Mohamad said some civil servants had delayed the purchase due to frequent transfers, especially for those serving in the armed forces and police.

"Hopefully, in the future, we can further localise the applications by districts, so that civil servants within such districts have a better opportunity to qualify for a PPA1M house.”

At present, there are 13 other PPA1M projects, comprising 6,400 houses, currently under development in Sungai Gadut, Port Dickson, Nilai and Jelebu, with the one proposed project in Sendayan pending approval from the Federal government.

"Depending on the locality, the concept of PPA1M houses in Negri is mostly terrace or linked homes. However, the one near Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia will be apartments" said Mohamad.

He added that the state hoped to complete some 4,000 units within the next two to three years.

Taman Berlian is Negri's first fully-completed PPA1M, built on 4.33 acre of land and developed by Famous Tropical Development Sdn Bhd.

The residential area consists of 20 units of single-storey semi-detached houses with four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

With a built-up area of 1,720 square feet, the price for these houses starts from RM299,280.

Some 359 applications were received for Taman Berlian PPA1M.

The Federal government is targeting the construction of 126,000 PPA1M units throughout the country, to be completed by 2020.

Priced from RM150,000 to RM300,000, PPA1M aims to increase the supply of affordable housing for civil servants who work for the Federal and state governments, local authorities and statutory bodies.