Cheap housing for local folks

GEORGE TOWN: About 7,300 affordable residential units will be built in the Batu Kawan ‘People’s Housing’ project.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the units would be built on 80.9ha of land in the new Bandar Cassia satellite township.

“We will call for an open tender soon to try to secure more value-added features for the project,” he said.

“Although this is a project for affordable housing, we want to it to be comfortable and we welcome more ideas to make it better.

“After the Hari Raya festivities are over, things will move fast,” he said, adding that an open tender would also be called for a 141ha golf course on the nearby hilly terrain.

Lim said the ‘People’s Housing’ was a starting point for the state government in providing affordable units for Penangites.

He said locals were given priority as the development, expected to cost billions of ringgit, would be heavily subsidised by the state government and the Penang Development Corporation (PDC).

“Initially, I announced that only some 60ha would be used for affordable housing but we have since increased the land size,” he told a press conference yesterday.

PDC general manager Datuk Rosli Jaafar said there would be no segregation between the low and low medium-cost units to encourage neighbourliness.

“We will optimise the density to 56 units for the medium rise apartments and the blocks would be no higher than 10 storeys.

“Units of various sizes will be housed in the same blocks because we do not want the low-cost unit owners to feel segregated,” he said.

Prices for the units range from RM72,500 for about 800sq ft to a maximum of RM220,000 for the larger units. Earthwork for the entire project will take 18 months to complete.

The whole development is targeted for completion within five to seven years.