BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Brunei is mulling the possibility of developing vertical housing after 2012 to accommodate the long list of housing applicants and ensure effective land use for development purposes.

Minister of Development Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Hj Suyoi Hj Osman yesterday said that by 2014, a total of 17,500 houses under the National Housing Scheme (RPN) and the Landless Indigenous Citizens Housing Scheme (STKRJ) would be available to accommodate the next batch of applicants.

“However, these 17,500 houses will only be able to accommodate half of the waiting list. This is excluding the needs of future generations,” said the minister during the 50th anniversary celebration of the Land Department.

Past reports have stated that the waiting list was estimated at more than 30,000 applicants by 2012 and only five per cent of the Sultanate’s land area can be used for development.

To increase the possible number of houses under the scheme and implement effective land use for development, His Majesty’s Government is considering constructing public housing through “vertical development” after 2012, Pehin Dato Hj Suyoi added.

Through this, land distribution is not for the purpose of housing only but for other productive uses, such as agriculture and industrial, he explained.

The minister also said that with the enforcement of the Land Code Strata Act (Chapter 189) last year, existing and future applicants of these housing schemes would be eligible to own strata units and be issued with a strata grant.

Hj Mohd Rozan Dato Paduka Hj Mohd Yunos, permanent secretary (Administration and Finance) at the Ministry of Development, explained that the strata grant functions like a normal land grant.

“If you have that (the strata grant), it means that you have an ownership right on the unit. You own part of the building, the same with land grant and you can do whatever you want with it. For example, you can mortgage it, you can borrow money based on that (the strata grant) as a security,” he told The Brunei Times in a phone interview yesterday.

“This particular grant is to assure people that one day if they are to live in a multiple-storey building, there is still a title to the property they own. Some people might get afraid that they don’t have anything to show (to the authority).”

The permanent secretary added that Brunei was running out of land to build large-scale housing, particularly in Brunei-Muara district, and thus a combination of housing schemes will have to be considered in the future. “High-rise buildings are a serious consideration. By socialising this issue, people will realise that it is not easy to build houses anymore,” he added.

The Brunei Times

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