PETALING JAYA: Any increase in construction costs will ultimately be passed down on housing prices, said the Malaysian Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda).

       Its acting president Datuk NK Tong said given the potential for housing prices to come under further upward pressure, this may be a timely opportunity for the government to tackle the issue once and for all, such as by embarking on state-funded affordable housing such as those seen elsewhere in the world.

       “The challenge of depending on developers to cross subsidise affordable housing has many unintended consequences.

       “The cross subsidy required by developers to produce affordable housing causes prices of regular housing to go up too, making it more expensive for the M40, and adding to the stock of completed and unsold homes as seen in some segments of the market,” he said yesterday.

       Tong added that as regular housing also rises in tandem with increasing construction costs, the supply of new regular housing coming into the market may slow down.

       However, this also depended on the ability of home buyers to afford them, which will also have an impact on the reduction of developer-produced affordable housing.

       “This certainly would not be in line with the government’s agenda of producing more affordable homes for the B40 component of the rakyat.

       “The only way to accurately project the future supply of affordable housing for the B40 would be for the government to use taxpayers funds to drive the affordable housing agenda,” he said.

       Rehda also lauded the government’s commitment to help resolve the sharp increase in construction costs as mentioned by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob at the groundbreaking ceremony of PR1MA-Astrum Ampang in Jelatek on Friday.

       Ismail Sabri said the National Affordable Housing Council will form a framework to help resolve the sharp increase in construction costs due to the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict.

       As such, the government is determined to find a solution to the issue that is affecting the prices of houses.

       “It is certainly challenging with the inflationary pressures which will continue to be faced by the world in the coming years.

       “This was already expected with the increase in global money printing over the past decade, which has been further exacerbated during the past two years of the global pandemic.

       “Rehda will continue to do its best in its nation building efforts to housing the rakyat affordably too,” he said.