DAMANSARA, 16 Apr: The Malaysian Malay Chamber of Commerce (DPPM) is overwhelmed by the Selangor government’s commitment to develop affordable housing.

Its President, Datuk Syed Ali Alattas, said that the effort can be seen when he and some of the DPMM senior officers met with the Chief Minister, Mohamed Azmin Ali, at the SUK Building in Shah Alam on February 27.

This visit was held to discuss the DPMM’s application to build 880 affordable homes in Sungai Merab near Putrajaya.

“I, the secretary general and treasurer, met him. He was not playing. He was outstanding to a point our architect was surprised that his mouth was agape.

“When our architect asked, usually we would only receive 16 homes for an acre of land. We have only 11 acres and the architect asked for a density of 80 units, but the CM gave is 120 units. Can you give that?

“Our architect added that it would be expensive to pay development charges. The CM said there is no need to pay because we are building homes for the people so he will not charge. He gave us many things,” he said during a press conference at the DPMM Building in Bukit Damansara today.

Syed Ali was also surprised when the application for the construction project received approval in a short time.

He said that the DPMM initially intended to sell residential units of the project at the cost price, but changed their decision to make a small profit as a ‘consolation prize’ to be channelled to other affordable housing projects in the future.

The construction of 880 affordable housing units in Sungai Merab is part of DPMM’s plans to build 5,000 housing units in the next five years.

NS