Agriculture land to house the nation

IN my article on “Virtuous cycle or downward spiral?” last month, I mentioned about our government being in the position to release government land to create more affordable homes. 

There has been feedback received thus far questioning its possibility. This feedback is largely related to the recent news of our government facing inadequate land bank.

A challenge it may seem but not without recourse. By law, the government has the provision to compulsory acquire land for public good, in this case, for affordable housing. One of the options is through the purchase of agriculture land. 

The rakyat can benefit from our government exercising its right to acquire agricultural land for public housing. It is more viable to build affordable homes on agriculture land instead of on prime land. The cost of the prime land itself is a burden to developers and the eventual property owners.

Our government as we are aware has land in both prime and rural areas. It could therefore leverage on the net returns from selling both types of land to private and public developers at market rate, to purchase the large reserves of agriculture land at agricultural land prices.

Even though most of the agriculture land is located in rural areas, our government can invest in building infrastructure such as public transport, MRT and schools from the proceeds of the land sales. This will help develop new townships and connect the residents to the cities. 

New townships that are properly developed naturally attract people to them. With population growth comes greater economic activities that will spur the growth of many sectors and create business opportunities that can benefit the general economy in the long term. 

The act of acquiring agriculture land and turning it into a public housing development is not a new move. It has been the right approach adopted by many countries and, yes, it is even practised in Malaysia. 

When I served as the state executive councillor for the Selangor government in the 1970s, acquiring agriculture land for public development was practised. Shah Alam, Bangi, and Cyberjaya are prominent townships that are a result of this acquisition. 

There was a concern that acquiring agriculture land for property development would eventually eat into surrounding plantation areas. This concern has been mitigated with the ability to build high-rise dwellings as opposed to horizontal housing (landed properties). Flats, apartments and the like, allow for effective and optimised land usage. 

Plantation owners, who have sold their land in the interest of the rakyat, will also gain. As the new property developments gather strength to become new townships, the market price of their adjoining land will also rise in tandem. They also stand to gain from the new infrastructure besides the manpower resources, be it skilled or non-skilled. 

In recent years, there has been increased public deliberation on the various options to build affordable homes in our country. It signified the prominence of the issue as well as the urgency to address it. Last year, our government stated its vision to develop one million affordable homes within five years. This means that there is a need to build an average of 200,000 homes a year. One of the many challenges is affordable land for property development. It looks like acquiring agriculture land is one of the best options to address this challenge. 

Determination and authority to move development forward are the key ingredients, among other things, to build affordable homes. While everyone can play a part in developing the nation, our government will always remain at the helm of building affordable homes for the rakyat. 

FIABCI Asia-Pacific regional secretariat chairman Datuk Alan Tong has over 50 years of experience in property development. He is also the group chairman of Bukit Kiara Properties. For feedback, please email feedback@fiabci-asiapacific.com. - The Star