The government will build 100,000 “low-cost” houses to expedite the local housing sector’s development, a Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development (DHSHD) official said.
Half of these new houses will be built in Yangon.
“The new housing complexes in Yangon will be built on the city outskirts and will offer houses of a basic standard,” Daw Aye Aye Myint, deputy director of the Urban and Regional Planning Department of DHSHD, told Myanmar Business Today.
The price for each apartment will be fixed at no more than K20 million ($23,337), she added.
The DHSHD currently has two ongoing projects – 120-acre Ayeyarwon low-cost housing complex and 100-acre Yadanar housing complex – in Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan township under a K500 billion government grant.
These projects comprise 17,408 apartments and are expected to finish in two to three years, DHSHD announced in a press conference on January 2.
In line with the implementation of housing, arrangements would be made so that tenants can own their own apartments, Daw Myint said.
However, real estate industry insiders are already questioning the appropriateness of the term “low-end housing”.
“It is hard to say that the houses are low-cost if the price is K20 million, which is difficult for people to afford. These houses are needed for people who really want to live in them and will have a chance to buy them,” a housing agent said requesting anonymity.
The prices will be extremely high if the apartments are bought by brokers, the agent added.
“We cannot purchase the apartments because we don’t even have K100,000 in our hands,” a labourer from Shwe Pyi Thar township said. To cope with increased population, 20,000 houses are needed in Yangon each year. Currently, private companies can build about 7,000 houses a year.
“We will make arrangements for the private companies so that they can build more houses in the future,” Daw Myint said.
