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Efficient Affordable Housing Reforms Need Collective Efforts - World Bank

Last update: 12/02/2018

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 (Bernama) -- There is an adamant need for a collective and concerted efforts from all stakeholders to ensure affordable housing reform takes place efficiently, said the World Bank.



Malaysia Country Manager, Faris H. Hadad-Zervos, said these required many institutions to play their roles, including the government, banks and agencies like the National Mortgage Corp and 1Malaysia People's Housing Programme.



"This (affordable housing) is an issue that is very much at the forefront of the agenda and the recent budget speech has a big segment that focuses on it."



"I think the story is not about what (affordable housing) model is the most effective, but rather a very substantial deep and wide reforms that require all parties to coordinate, so that whatever solutions, actually reflect everybody and the priority now is how all the parties should come together and coordinate the reform," he told reporters on the sidelines after a panel discussion on 'Navigating the Affordable Housing Market in Urban Cities', here today.



Also present was Bank Negara Malaysia Assistant Governor, Norzila Abdul Aziz.



This panel discussion was part of a series of special sessions held at the World Urban Forum 9.



The panellists, which included a number of World Bank's representatives, exchanged ideas and explored creative ways of dealing with barriers impeding affordable housing development.



These include achieving the right balance between supply and demand side policies through well-designed and targeted government initiatives.



-- BERNAMA