Kuala Lumpur: The government has built 255,341 or 23% of the 1.1 million units of affordable houses that have been targetted, from January 1, 2013 to October 15 this year.

Minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Tan Sri Noh Omar said 717,512 or 64.6 of the houses were still under construction while another 138,775 units or 12.4% have been committed.

"The initial target for affordable homes for a five year period from 2013 to 2018 was one million units but due to an increase in the need for affordable homes, the number was increased to 1.1 million units. The affordable homes projects is being carried out nationwide under the Affordable Homes Programme by various federal government agencies, state government agencies and private sector," said the minister who told the Dewan Rakyat during the question and answer session on Thursday (2 November 2017).

Noh Omar was answering a question from Khalid Abd Samad (Amanah-Shah Alam) who wanted to know the ministry's proposed plan to build 1.1 million affordable homes by 2018.

He said the federal gvernment was facing various challenges in terms of cooperation from state governments to carry out such projects.

For example, the Selangor state government are setting conditions just like private companies for the implementation of the projects by Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA) and Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB).

"Such government projects are not to make any profits, in fact, we give an allocation of RM2.2 billion. The state government must, therefore, give their cooperation and support instead of setting various conditions like the private sector," he said.