Kuala lumpur: REHDA Institute views positively the government's indication that affordable housing may move away from the uniform RM300,000 price ceiling towards a more income-based model, saying affordability benchmarks should reflect local household incomes and actual demand. The research arm of the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (REHDA) said the benchmarks should be reviewed periodically, supported by income-based targeting and more location-specific allocation mechanisms.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the institute emphasized that housing prices must recognize actual delivery costs. This statement follows the government's decision to draft and amend four housing laws under the National Housing Policy (NHP) 2026-2035. The institute noted that 82 per cent of developers surveyed in its Housing for All study reported that regulated prices for price-controlled housing were below actual development costs due to rising land, construction, labour, compliance, and infrastructure costs.
The REHDA Institute supported the government's emphasis on data-driven planning based on demographics, needs, and actual demand. It highlighted the importance of better use of data on household formation, income, demographics, housing stock, vacancy rates, unsold completed units, and mobility patterns to address persistent supply-demand mismatches, unsold housing, and abandoned developments. This data utilization can help avoid overbuilding in weak markets while ensuring genuine housing needs are met in areas of demand.
The institute also welcomed the NHP's attention on the ageing population, including housing financing schemes tailored for senior citizens, retrofitting grants to facilitate ageing-in-place, and incentives to private developers for the development of liveable senior care centres. It noted that data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) showed that Malaysians aged 65 years and above accounted for eight per cent of the population in 2025, up from 7.6 per cent in 2024.
The REHDA Institute emphasized that Malaysia is on track to become an 'aged nation' by 2048, when citizens aged 65 and older reach 14 per cent of the total population. It stressed that future housing supply must respond to the different needs of households throughout their life cycle. On housing financing, the institute welcomed proposed measures including the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme (SJKP), stepped financing, shared ownership, and long-term fixed-rate mortgages, particularly as loan eligibility remains a key barrier for aspiring homeowners.
Moving forward, the REHDA Institute stated it would continue supporting the government through Training, Research, and Education, including research and training collaborations and platforms such as the Malaysia-Cambridge Urban Platform (MCUP) to strengthen housing affordability measurement, big data analytics, urban planning, and evidence-based policymaking.
In the same statement, REHDA Institute chairman Datuk Jeffrey Ng Tiong Lip noted that the NHP 2026-2035 reflected many issues the institute had been advocating, particularly demand-driven supply, demographic responsiveness, and more flexible financing. He emphasized that the next step is to ensure numerical targets remain guided by actual household needs, and success should not simply be measured by the number of homes built or owned, but by whether Malaysians have access to the right housing, in the right location, under a tenure and financial commitment that they can sustainably afford.