KUALA TERENGGANU, 3 Aug 2017:
The distribution of 5,939 housing lots in Terengganu from yesterday is also open to applicants aged 41 and above, said Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman.
He said applications were initially opened only for Terengganu residents aged between 21 and 40.
“Nonetheless at the Exco meeting today, the state government agreed to open applications to those aged 41 and above and we will ensure they receive 50% of the 5,939 residential lots,” he said after launching the Group Settlement Scheme (RTB) housing lot special programme here yesterday.
Other conditions for the programme are that the applicant must be married with monthly income below RM3,500, is registered with the Election Commission and does not own land or subsidised housing by the government.
The Terengganu government is providing residential lots for free to those eligible to buy affordable homes as an alternative, instead of building and then sell the houses to them.
Ahmad Razif said the state government was not able to build the houses due to financial constraints, and the best alternative was to provide those eligible for the houses with the land.
He said the distribution of 5,939 free residential lots in Terengganu was an alternative solution for the state government to ensure the people could still own houses.
“Before this, we helped many people to purchase affordable homes with a construction cost of RM140,000 per unit, but we sold to those eligible at only RM68,000 (with a subsidy of RM72,000) per unit.
“So now we have to make a transformation. We change to ensure the people’s rights are maintained, after getting the land they can borrow either from the government or banks, according to their ability, to build the houses.”
Of the 5,939 housing lots available, 3,362 lots are in Setiu, followed by Dungun (1,332), Kemaman (928), Kuala Terengganu (109), Marang (71) , Besut (69) and 34 lots each in Hulu Terengganu and Kuala Nerus.
Ahmad Razif said the number of residential lots varies in districts such as Hulu Terengganu and Kuala Nerus as no new RTB had been opened in the two districts.
“This is only the beginning, more residential lots would be offered for free to eligible people as RTB continues to be opened from time to time.”
On the time taken to process the housing lots, Ahmad Razif said it depended on the number of applications received.
– Bernama