Many more low-priced and rental apartments are expected to be built across Myanmar under the new government according to a director general in the Ministry of Construction.
The former government was unable to provide adequate affordable housing options to its lowest-income citizens, particularly in Yangon.
Several projects have been built, but high land prices and an underdeveloped banking system have delayed progress, and the new government has inherited a chronic housing shortage.
New construction minister U Win Khaing has instructed the ministry to focus on building more affordable residential units and to prioritise low-cost and rental housing projects over luxury developments.
“Our minister has asked us to develop more residential rooms that are really affordable for the people. We will implement this [instruction] based on the guidance of the government,” said U Min Htein, director general of the Department of Urban and Housing Development (DUHD).
U Min Htein has suggested building more rental housing projects such as the Mahabandoola housing project in Yangon, which is offering apartments for K30,000 a month. When applications for rooms opened last month, 35,000 people applied for the 1200 apartments available.
So far, the new minister has not issued any directive on the suggestion, said U Min Htein.
According to Ministry of Construction calculations, Yangon Region needs about 100,000 new residential rooms every year. Developing many more low-cost housing projects can solve the issue of housing shortages for low-income groups and civil servants.
The DUHD will soon make an evaluation of the housing projects implemented over past five years, U Min Htein said.
“The new government will do its best to fulfill the needs of the public. We will continue to carry out [the former government’s] goal of building 1 million apartments. We will not use the state budget in developing housing projects but will use the department’s circulating fund,” he added.
The former government set a target of building 1 million residential units between 2011 and 2031, in 81 towns and cities across the country.
DUHD provided more than 50,000 units of low-cost and rental rooms between 2010 and 2015. But housing shortages still remain, said the department’s deputy director U Min Aung Aye.
“There is a concern that if we develop rental housing projects only in Yangon, many people from other towns outside Yangon will flock to the city. That’s why we also need to solve housing shortages in other cities and to improve their economies,” he said.
Translation by Zar Zar Soe
Quoted from mmtimes.
