SHAH ALAM, 12 June: The Selangor Government targets for 75% of apartment communities in Selangor to achieve the Smart Community status by 2022.

The target areas involve 1,313 areas (198,141 units) for low-cost apartments and 105 areas (45,556 units) for urban settlements.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Selangor Housing and Property Board (LPHS), Norzaton Aini Mohd Kassim, said that as state that is the focus of migration, Selangor needs to create homes, in addition to ensuring sufficient land for future needs.

“When land is limited, the remaining land available needs to be reserved for the future. Thus, the types of housing will change and then, the development of terrace houses, semi-detached and bungalows will change towards apartment-type residences,” she said.

Norzaton added that the State Government is currently working to educate the people to prepare for life in apartments.

She explained that all programmes that have and will be implemented for apartment communities are aimed towards that.

“This is a concept the State Government wants to adopt. The concept is not for you (the people) to reside in apartments, but the happiness, comfort and harmony in apartment living.

“That is why programmes like CERIA, SEROKA, BCH and many more have been mobilised since the State Government began administration.

The Executive Councillor for Housing, Building Management and Urban Settlement, Iskandar Abdul Samad, said that the implementation of programmes that empower apartment communities is not just to provide a comfortable and harmonious environment.

In fact, it seeks to promote awareness and a sense of responsibility among the community.

“We have implemented a variety of programmes to guide this community and at the end, we want to see them government their apartments on their own.

“The State Government will only guide them so that they can be independent. The same method is practices in developed countries,” he explained.