The new National Housing Policy will include sustainable scheme adaptations for the present housing needs and situations in Sabah, said federal Local Housing and Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.

Zuraida noted that Sabah is facing squatter issues and has its own housing mechanism due to topographical and population concentration, among others.

"I have been given the understanding that in Sabah, they have a different kind of mechanism, where the low-cost houses are all 100% being rented out to the people, but it is not the same in Kuala Lumpur or the Peninsular. (At) this time in Sabah, all the houses are being rented out, which is going to be also adapted in my new National Housing Policy because we feel it is a more sustainable scheme for us to house these squatters in towns and districts" she said after a briefing by Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) on Kota Kinabalu squatter issues at a hotel on Sunday, 12 August.

"I have yet to finalize the housing concept that we want to share, but I am also not discounting the fact that probably (for) Sabah, we would have to approach it in a different manner just like Sarawak.

"I have to do it for Sabah in a different manner as opposed to the Peninsular because we have a totally different landscape, different sort of areas, different sort of population concentration and that kind of thing.

Therefore, I would have to sit down again with SHAREDA (Sabah Housing and Real estate Developers Association) to get their input and also on the state of the housing industry in Sabah" she added.

Zuraida announced in Kuching on Saturday that the Housing and Local Government Ministry will introduce a new housing policy in September that would benefit the lower income group in Sabah and Sarawak.

She said the existing public housing policy would be reviewed thoroughly in order to bring down the prices of low-cost houses, as those categorised as under the Lower Income Group (B40) in Sarawak is different from those in Peninsular Malaysia.