THE Selangor government is requesting Bank Negara to review its strict guidelines for housing loans to allow more Selangor folk to buy affordable housing in the state.

Selangor Housing Committee chairman Datuk Iskandar Abdul Samad said half of the non-eligible applicants were not able to secure housing loans because of their National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans.

“We have some 60% of rejected applicants and most rejections were because of their PTPTN loans. We have asked Bank Negara to attend a meeting to discuss this but they declined the offer,” said Iskandar.

He said this in response to Dr Xavier Jeyakumar’s (PKR-Seri Andalas) query on the reason behind the high number of rejections for the Selangorku housing scheme.

Iskandar said they had their own schemes to help the applicants financially, through the Smart Sewa scheme and Dana Sel.

In fact, affordable housing schemes in Selangor was the focal point of discussion at the Selangor state assembly’s question-and-answer session yesterday.

The first question was posed by Ng Suee Lim (DAP-Sekinchan) on the status of the Selangorku Affordable Housing Scheme and the difference between the scheme and the Federal Government’s Prima homes.

Iskandar said there were 14 projects under the Selangorku banner with one completed project and 11 under construction.

“Prima homes are priced at RM400,000 per unit while SelangorKu homes are priced at RM250,000.

“Prima has expressed their wish to build Prima homes here but we have put forth several conditions,” he added.

The conditions include capping the Prima homes at RM250,000 as per the price of Selangorku houses and to combine the name of Prima and Selangorku for the housing scheme.

Ng also asked about the timeline given to developers who are building the Selangorku houses.

Iskandar said the developers would have to submit the planning approval within six months and works for the Selangorku houses have to begin first or be built simultaneously with their other projects.

Haniza Talha (PKR-Taman Medan) urged Iskandar to help apply for a bigger allocation for the Ceria Scheme to allow the state to fix the infrastructure in low-cost housing flats.

Iskandar said they had allocated RM10mil from the Malaysian Road Records Information System fund to fix the roads and drainage in the first phase from January to June this year.

However, Haniza felt it was insufficient to fix the relevant flats and urged Iskandar to consider applying for a bigger budget.

Asked if Iskandar would consider the proposal, he said there was a possibility in the upcoming budget meeting in November.