KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- The redevelopment of the 1Razak Mansion Public Housing Project is clear proof of the commitment of the Barisan Nasional government in implementing a balanced development concept not only in the rural areas, but also in towns and cities, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
He said this was the noble effort of the government to ensure the people could enjoy a better and more comfortable quality of life.
"As we know, this housing area is close to my heart because the late Tun Abdul Razak (the second prime minister of Malaysia who was also Najib's father) had stepped foot here and launched the Razak Mansion Public Housing Area 47 years ago, on April 26, 1967.
"Time passes, 47 years have gone by, so the time has come for this housing area which is now quite dilapidated to require a redevelopment in line with the principle of urban renewal or urban redevelopment," he added.
Najib said this when performing the ground-breaking ceremony and handing over of confirmation letters for housing units at 1Razak Mansion near here, today.
According to Najib, if the government did not launch such an initiative, it would lead to the creation of areas which were left behind by time and urban squatters in the middle of a city, which was prolifically developing.
Najib stressed it was not appropriate to see Kuala Lumpur, being among the foremost cities in the world, still having locations which could be regarded as unsuitable with the status of a metropolis.
The redevelopment of the 1Razak Mansion involves the replacement of 658 units of houses occupied by 557 existing owners and 101 units rented out by Kuala Lumpur City Hall.
The project scheduled to start in the middle of this year and expected to be completed in three years also involves the redevelopment of 23 shoplots, a 20,000 square feet market.
It will also have numerous facilities such as a public hall, surau, kindergarten and police beat base.
When completed, the new houses in the project will have three bedrooms and two bathrooms and measure 800 square feet compared to the existing units which only have one or two bedrooms in a 504 square feet area.
In his speech, Najib also announced several incentives for existing house owners and tenants, among which the owners would be given a new unit free while tenants would be offered homes at RM42,000 a unit.
Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Impianika Sdn Bhd would fully bear the stamp duty cost of RM4,000.
Najib also said owners would be given RM3,000 in moving costs whereby RM1,500 would be paid when signing the agreement and the rest after the project was fully completed.
He drew attention to the fact that in ensuring the people owned comfortable homes, the government had introduced numerous housing projects among which were the 1Malaysia People's Housing Project (PR1MA) and 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing Project.
Under under the programmes, the developers are eligible to apply for a Housing Facilitation Fund of 10 percent of the cost of the project.
The government has also allocated RM1 billion for the Housing Facilitation Fund under the Public/Private Sector Cooperation Unit, and to qualify for the grants, developers must comply with the conditions on house prices stipulated by the government.
"In addition, RM100 million has been provided for the 1Malaysia Maintenance Fund under the supervision of the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Ministry to boost the comfort of public housing tenants.
"Among the moves that the government is carrying out include maintaining lifts, repainting houses, cleaning clogged drains, repairing garbage disposal areas and repairing playgrounds," Najib clarified.
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