The Federal Government is unlikely to achieve its goal of completing 1.1 million affordable houses by the end of this year, according to property consultancy CBRE WTW.

This is because Putrajaya revealed last November that only 255,341 units of low-cost residential properties have been built across Malaysia since 2013. If the authorities only managed to construct about 168,932 dwellings per annum over the past five years, then building the remaining balance of approximately 844,659 homes in less than 12 months seems to be an impossible feat.

In particular, the Federal Government's objective of completing 606,000 affordable houses in Klang Valley under the 11th Malaysia Plan appears to be a tall order, as merely 45,000 dwellings have been built at present.

"From what we have seen today, less than 50,000 units have been completed. We are far away behind from the target" said CBRE WTW's Managing Director Foo Gee Jen during the 11th Malaysian Property Summit 2018 held on Tuesday (23 January).

Hence, the property expert is urging the government to introduce policies to encourage the construction of more low-cost homes and make it easier for companies to undertake such housing projects.

This can be done by giving more incentives to private property developers, allow the co-sharing of infrastructure costs, simplifying the application procedures for home buyers, creating a comprehensive database for this market segment and establishing a central authority overseeing the market and the provision of low-cost dwellings across the country.