Syafiee Shuid

An assessment on housing affordability on selected urban areas in Perak

This study concerns on strategies and focuses on affordable housing for urban areas in Perak. The affordable housing development has become an absolute necessity of residents in Perak. The affordable housing assessment is to assist policy formulation, decision-making and resources allocation of the local authorities and state government. It was found based on national household income survey for the year 2012 to 2014 that household income levels differed from one district to another, with Kinta and Manjung population having higher income levels compared to the rest of the state population. Analysis of the study appears to show that some 40% of the population earned less than RM 4,000 monthly, thus, can be classified as the B40 group and there existed disparities among districts which resulted in differing levels of affordability, particularly in the context of purchasing of a house. Furthermore, the study also found that there has been a drastic change in housing pricing between the year of 2012 and 2014 that affected the affordability levels. In other words, the affordability index for the whole of Perak for the year 2014 and 2015 can be categorised as severely unaffordable.

Parents' perception on children safe distance: A case study of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor

Rapid development in Malaysia has lead the family institution to experience challenges in ensuring safety of the family members. The safety of children is a serious matter and currently parents tend to be more vigilant on the issues of safety among children. Overall, the study focus on the safe distance allowed by parents or adult families member of their children to travel from their homes to the public places such as schools, shopping mall, public facilities, bus stations and parks. This study adopted quantitative analysis of face to face questionnaire survey distributed to 4,500 respondents in the Klang Valley. The sampling techniques for the data collection were stratified and simple random sampling method. From this study, it was found that the main factors that influenced parents and guardians to allow their children to travel alone or by group are the children age. Based on the analysis, majority of parents and guardians do not allow their children to go to public places especially at night and alone.

Demand for low-cost housing among local people in Perak

Housing serves one of basic human needs. Hence housing quality positively relates to human well-being. This paper explores factors influencing housing demand in Perak. ISSUE: In Perak, the housing supply has yet to respond to the increasing housing demand with regards to the rising population. AIM: The aims of this research is to assess the current demand and supply of low-cost housing stock in Perak. METHOD: Content analysis was conducted based on secondary data gathered from government agencies such as National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), Department of Statistics Malaysia and Perak Land and Mineral Office. FINDINGS: According to previous studies, nine factors were influencing the demand for low-cost housing. The factors include (i) population growth, (ii) birth rate, (iii) child mortality rate, (iv) income rate, (v) poverty rate, (vi) unemployment rate, (vii) housing stock (viii) inflation rate, and (ix) Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Recent studies discovered that out of the nine factors, only three of the factors significantly influence the housing demand in Perak. These factors were (i) demographic factors, (ii) monthly household income, and (iv) housing supply. The rate of population growth had drastically increased from the year 2000 to 2010. Additionally, more than 50% of the household in Perak had an average monthly income of less than RM 2,999. Despite these issues, the low-cost housing stock from the year 2010 to 2015 had significantly decreased eventhough the demand for these types of houses was high. The lack of low cost housing units leads to poor well-being as population face (i) burden of high rental, (ii) overcrowding and (iii) substandard housing. Therefore, constant monitoring by the related authorities on the construction of low cost houses is imperatively in need to ensure the continued supply of the low-cost housing targeted to the low-income population.