Journal of Housing and the Built Environment

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09821-4

ARTICLE

Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,

Malaysia

Elia Syarafina Abdul Shakur1,2,3   · Ahmad Fariz Mohamed3 · Abdul Samad Hadi3

Received: 16 May 2020 / Accepted: 18 January 2021

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2021

Abstract
Home ownership is one key factor of the principles of livability towards achieving live-
able city. In addition, there are also many factors affecting home ownership which includes
income, location and accessibility factor. Various issues have been discussed by the Gov-
ernment of Malaysia in addressing the concern of home ownership, especially for the mid-
dle- and low-income groups in many cities in Malaysia. Using the case of Kajang city,
this article aims to achieve the objective of identifying the major factors affecting home
ownership for liveable city focusing the middle-income earners. Purposive sampling was
used and in-depth interviews method were conducted with 41 potential homebuyer, 60
homeowners and 20 housing experts representing the Federal Government agencies, State
Government agencies, Municipal Government, Developers, Banks and Real Estate-Related
Consultant. The result of the study shows that the main factors affecting home ownership
are income, housing loan scheme, location, government role, developer role, PR1MA
affordable housing scheme, construction cost, Bumiputera quotas, lifestyle, quality of life,
real estate investment and transfer, assessment/property tax, land ownership by foreigners
and ownership title. The findings show that the Kajang City is an example of a city that can
contribute to the affordable housing strategy requirements towards achieving liveable city.
The findings also will help key stakeholder in addressing the main issues of housing afford-
ability in the State of Selangor.

Keywords  Liveable city · Home ownership · Affordable housing · Kajang city

* Elia Syarafina Abdul Shakur

[email protected]
1
Department of Building and Property Management, Faculty of Accountancy and Management,
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
2
Institute Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (BioD Tropical), Universiti Malaysia
Terengganu (UMT), 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
3
Institute Environmental and Development (LESTARI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM),
43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

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1 Introduction

Each country has home-ownership issues, which includes no financial capabilities, lack
of infrastructure, unaffordable housing unit and others. This article illustrated and dis-
cussed the main issues faced by community in the State of Selangor, Malaysia. The cur-
rent situation in Malaysia, illustrated that the price for a house will gradually increase
each year (JPPH 2014), either controlled or uncontrolled by the government or developer.
Home ownership in Malaysia face many challenges especially the ability and accessibil-
ity of the people to buy or rent a house provided; issues of demand exceeds supply for
low and medium-cost homes and problem of abandoned housing projects. In addition to
these challenges, according to DNH (2012), there are housing areas do not have complete
social facilities and amenities such as transportation, security and maintenance. The provi-
sion of affordable housing is still not enough to meet the needs of Malaysian communities.
Besides, there is a lack of compliance with all aspects of legislation and regulations to
ensure that the implementation of housing projects made must follow the requirements of
the given approval. In 2018, the Federal Government focusing on access to housing financ-
ing (DNH 2018) to support the needs for house-ownership by the middle- and low-income
groups. According to Bank Negara Malaysia (2017), the households’ group that will face
problems in obtaining bank financing for housing are those who earn less than RM5000
(USD1204.67) a month in the city centre, or less than RM3000 (USD722.80) a month in
other areas. Therefore, it is important to view these issues from different perspectives to
achieve an unbias conclusion regarding home ownership. The study was conducted the
analyse these issues and identify important factors which help to fill the knowledge gap in
the field of property analysis for homeownership and its relationship with liveable city. Pre-
vious studies conducted shows how the the factors influencing homeownership and home
price movements affects the house affordability by certains groups living in cities (Jayantha
and Oladinrin 2020). However, not many studies were conducted to study the key factors
that influence homeownership for liveable city empirically. Insufficient research and studies
on factors affecting home ownership, especially in Malaysia, contributes to less awareness
and lack action taken by the Government and the Developer. This study seeks to determine
the major factors affecting home ownership that contributes to meet the needs of liveable
city concept. The study scope focus on the middle-income earners consisting of potential
buyers and homeowners in Kajang city while experts are involved in the housing indus-
try such as the Government (Local, State and Federal) and Private (Developers and Real
Estate Associations). The importance of this factors listed and views by these groups illus-
trates the real problems faced by the middle-income group in terms of demand and sup-
ply, affordability and accessiblity. The middle-income group in Malaysia become a group
of concerned as the current government policy for house ownership did not specifically
focus on their needs. They are left with little options as there are no government policy and
mechanism which help to help them to own a house within their affordability. Therefore,
this study also indirectly, it can contribute to the needs and benefits of city dwellers.
This article discusses affordable housing and urban development in the city of Kajang
since there is lack of research conducted in this area of concern for Malaysian cities. The
uniqueness of Kajang city is not only equipped with efficient transportation but also a tour-
ist attraction because it has interesting historical characteristics. Kajang City has a cul-
ture-based tourism segmentation. Historically Kajang city play important role as sub-urban
areas supporting the rapid growth of Kuala Lumpur City since early 20th Century (Abdul
Samad et.al. 2018). Kajang is also bordered with Putrajaya, the administrative centre of

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Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

Malaysia. In addition, with its unique development process influence by these two major
cities, Kajang also is a home to many learning and training institutions of higher learn-
ing that have high potential as a Knowledge City. The research question is what are the
main factors and views of the action in assessing the importance of homeownership for the
determination of liveable city?. The aim of the study is crucial to identify the most impor-
tant factors affecting home ownership that the Government and the Developers need to
acknowledge, comply and implement. These factors are explained by three different groups
of respondents in order to get different observations. This study also discusses key home-
ownership strategies to fulfil the needs of the National Housing Policy that will assist the
government to manage these issues effectively in the future.

2 Literature review

The Federal Government of Malaysia through various agencies and ministries actively
implementing programs that provide affordable housing such as Rumah Mampu Milik
Wilayah Persekutuan (RUMAWIP), Malaysian Civil Servants Housing Branch, Syari-
kat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB), and PR1MA Malaysia Corporation (PR1MA) to
ensure that the low and middle-income group can own a house (DNH 2018). In addition
to Federal Governemnt initiative, the Staste Government, especially the State Government
of Selangor also has implemented house-ownership program such as Rumah SelangorKu
(MySelangor House). Home ownership for potential middle-income homebuyers and
homeowners usually is affected by their income, which is the main factor that becomes a
challenge for them. However, there are also other factors which need to be considered by
the potential homebuyers, homeowners, and experts in reference to house ownership and
affordability. This study focuses on the factors affecting home ownership that comprises
housing affordability and accessibility for the liveable city concept. Housing policy is
essential to assist renters and owners to obtain affordable and quality homes (Herbert et al.
2013). In addition, in 2018 there was a change in the formation of a new government in
Malaysia. The problem of access to housing has become more critical among the middle-
income earners since this problem is not being addressed enough by governments in devel-
oped and developing countries (Aziz et  al 2011; Vergara-Perucich 2019). This indirectly
affects the aspect for liveable city especially potential homebuyers who are now entering
the homeowner market (Clark et al 2019) in terms of living in urban areas. The challenge
to provide and improve access to affordable housing is expected to be more critical with
the United Nations estimates that the global population to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, where
60% of which will live in urban centers. It is estimated that three billion people will require
new housing and basic infrastructure in the city, and housing supply system will be high-
lighted more (United Nations 2015). Without good financial management, it will be diffi-
cult for the people in the city to be able to afford the housing and other costs.
Malaysia is a developing country where rapid urbanization experiencing fast population
growth which triggering high demand for housing. (Buhaug and Urdal 2013; Samad et al
2017) especially Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Johor Bahru and Georgetown city. Malay-
sia’s home ownership challenge in urban areas with a percentage of only 69.1% in 2010
of the urban population own a house, according to (the year of the latest Population and
Housing Census). One of key issue affecting this number is the access to affordable house
since the price of house increases rapidly (Samad et.al. 2017). For example, home owner-
ship in major cities such as Kuala Lumpur city (53.5%) and State of Selangor (66.9%), thus

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 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

show there are still many have problem to own a house. Overall, Malaysian home owner-
ship in urban and rural urban areas was 72.5%. (Khazanah Research Institute 2015). With
rapid growth of population within the urban areas in Malaysia, estimated at 2% annualy
which will reach 38.6 million by 2040 will require the government and the municipality to
provide more houses.
The increase in house prices has made things worse for Malaysians who are already
struggling with high living cost since the goods and services tax (GST) started in 2015,
introduced by the Government before. Furthermore, the previous Government has already
removed subsidies on daily items including petrol and sugar (Zain and Yusof 2017). With
such high house price and living cost, it is almost impossible to own a house between age
23–40. Malaysian are still facing a mismatch between availability of affordable housing
and their household income, especially for the middle-income group. This group are over-
qualified to apply for low-cost housing programmes and at the same time unable to pur-
chase house built by the private housing developers (Samad et al. 2017). In the first quar-
ter of 2017, only 20% of new housing launches priced less than RM250000, which has
decreased compared from 33% between 2010 and 2014 (Yusof et al. 2019). Through the
’Housing Watch’ website by Bank Negara Malaysia (Ling and Almeida 2016), most of
the new house value between RM250,000 and RM500,000 which are appropriate to the
median annual household income that is estimated at approximately RM63,000.
Based on Department of Statistic (2014) report, ’Housing Income Survey’ Malaysian
shows that median income of RM4500 is incapable of financing the house priced higher
than RM300,000. The affordable housing initiatives that have been implemented by the
government are beginning to show results with the increase in the level index of affordable
housing by the people from 5.1 in 2014 to 5.0 in 2016. During the same period, the median
price of houses in Malaysia has increased at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
rate of 26.5% from RM175,000 to RM280,000. Although the level of affordability of the
house has improved but still categorized as "very unaffordable" (DNH 2018). According to
’Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2016 in the Table 1 is the maxi-
mum estimate of the affordable house prices obtained by the income category. Calcula-
tion of house prices range using ’the Housing Cost Burden approach’, where the house is
considered affordable if the monthly housing loan installments does not exceed 30% of

Table 1  Maximum affordable Household income Percentage of households Maximum affordable

house price by household income ­brackets1, RM by income b­ rackets1, % house ­price2,3, RM
Source Department of Statistics,
Malaysia and Bank Negara
 ≤ 1999 8.8 112,200–124,700
Malaysia estimates (Bank Negara
Malaysia 2018) 2000–3999 26.1 222,150–247,200
4000–5999 22.6 318,600–354,100
6000–7999 14.6 408,300–453,600
8000–9999 9.3 493,500–556,100
10,000–14,999 11.3 699,560–777,600

The significance of numbers in the table is about monthly median

household income and compared to the estimated maximum price of
an affordable house price. Estimates of maximum affordable house
price are derived based on the upper bound of each income bracket.
For example, In 2016, given the Malaysian monthly median household
income of RM5,228, the actual median house price of RM313k was
considered unaffordable compared to the estimated maximum price of
an affordable home (RM282k).

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Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

household net monthly income (after statutory deductions). Estimates are based on interest
rate of 4.5% and loan tenure of 35 years.
Based on the table, it is evident that the income group RM2,000—RM3,999 is the high-
est in Malaysia with 26.1%. The affordable price range for this group is RM222,150—
RM247,200. However, house prices nowadays have exceeded RM600,000 together with
the ability of the household income of RM10,000 and above (Bank Negara Malaysia 2018).
Property prices driven by speculative markets where people buy homes for investment pur-
pose but not to live in it. Therefore this create speculation situation where the needs are
more towards for renting or selling homes for long term profit.
Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Muhammad Ibrahim has clarified the issue of
lack of ability to own a house with no income and an overpriced house. The problem of
access to credit is not the main reason and the lender must make it clear to the public (Bank
Negara Malaysia 2018). According to Awliya (2017), developers should be socially respon-
sible by building affordable houses and not too expensive to a point potential buyer will
have to complain, because banks do not approve housing loans. Construction of affordable
housing is a step in by developers to support homebuyers.
The Government’s move to introduce different affordable housing schemes is to ensure
that all Malaysians receive government assistance in home ownership. For the middle-
income group, the Government needs to develop more 1Malaysia People’s Housing
Scheme (PR1MA) under the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016–2020). The government targets to
provide 653,000 affordable homes under the 11th Malaysia Plan and set up a land bank
for potential housing projects in the future (Khazanah Research Institute 2015). Between
2011 and 2015, it was estimated to be about 410,000 new residential units completed in
Malaysia.
According to World Bank (2019), World Bank director of urban development, Dr
Sameh Naguib Wahba Tadros thought that the Government should address the inefficien-
cies in the housing market before they begin to subsidize affordable housing. Tadros noted
that steps should be emphasized by specifying how the housing system in dealing with
other factors such as access to financing. This allows the Government to use their finance
to subsidize housing according to public demand. To overcome the problem of hous-
ing financing, the government through the Ministry of Housing and Local Government
(KPKT) since 2012 has implemented various financing schemes such as the First House
Deposit Financing Scheme (MyDeposit) and Housing Loan Scheme (DNH 2018). This had
been agreed by World Bank’s country manager for Malaysia, Faris H Hadad-Zervos, that
the new Malaysia Government needs to step up their efforts in addressing every aspect of
the housing sector reform. The Government’s main concern should be to think how all
parties can work together in coordinating the transformation (World Bank 2017) including
efforts by PR1MA (1Malaysia People’s Housing Programme) built specifically for middle-
income groups.

3 What is liveable city? Why homeownership in Kajang city important

for liveable city?

Affordable housing is one of the aspects of liveable city. Liveable city defined by ‘Victo-
rian Competition and Efficiency Commission’ (2008) into the concept: Liveable reflects
the well-being of the community and consists of many features that make the location

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 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

where people want to live now and in the future. While Salzano (1997) and Scanlon
(2019), describes it as a city that meets the needs of the population today without reduc-
ing the capacity of future generations and is a space for the center of social life and com-
munity’s focus. The link between home ownership with the liveable city’s concept for this
article is in terms of access to infrastructure and affordable housing. The urban population
defines liveable as the ‘quality of life’ as experienced. The importance of the liveable in
this context of sustainability is the ability to maintain the quality of life or aspiration of
each (Abdul Samad et al. 2011) in the occupied place.
This article discusse the need for ’access to flexible and affordable houses’, which is
one of key factors for the liveable city concept. Evaluation of the access has been adapted
through the Liveability Assessment Tool that was developed by Hunter New England
Population Health (2012). This assessment refers to four population liveability principles
namely accessibility, flexibility, sustainability and connectivity (see Fig. 1). Accessibility
where the facility of infrastructure and services used by the population. Flexibility can be
defined as the ability to adapt to any situation and to support various needs according to
different populations. Sustainability is to provide resources for the needs of the popula-
tion based on current situation and to sustain resources to meet the needs of generations in
the future. Connectivity refers to providing paths for public use such as walkways, bicycle
paths and public transport.
Md. Nazri (2013) explains in order to achieve the liveable city concept, firstly it should
create a city for all residents such as safe cities; easily accessible; providing facilities for
people with disabilities and all ages. Second, prioritizing the people, namely the encour-
agement of the community (what they want and what is good for them) and less political
interference. Thirdly, it encourages diversity of land use to meet the needs of the people,
with flexible and easy to respond to change. Fourth, enhancing accessibility such as transit-
oriented development accessible to all to encourage the use of public transport to reduce
private vehicles. Fifth, the placement of activities that will meet social needs. Finally, pre-
serving heritage and culture in which emphasize the character of a place and spirited city
(Salzano 1997). The image of a city is an area that can be identified by the residents about
its specialities. Kajang City, apart from its’role as aupporting city for Kuala Lumpur and
Putrajaya, also have its cultural and heritage which characterized with more than 300 arte-
facts and buildings that are more than 120  years old. Accordingly, a study conducted to
meet the requirements of this article to identify the real problems of home ownership faced
through experience of experts and communities in Malaysian. Abdul Samad Hadi et  al.
(2014) findings illustrated that urbanization is a source of wealth by investing in the devel-
opment of a wide range of social projects including affordable housing, health, education,
modern transport infrastructure, physical infrastructure and continuous improvement in the
quality of life among the urban population.

Fig. 1  Principles for Population

Liveability Source Wells et al. Accessibility
(2007) and Hunter New England
Population Health (2012)
Connectivity Flexibility

Sustainability

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Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

3.1 Kajang as the choice of city to live in: liveability concept

Play as key role as supporting city for rapid growth of Kuala Lumpur city and Putrajaya as
the administrative city for Malaysia (Abdul Hadi et.al. 2011), thus increase the demand of
more housing in Kajang City. The city of Kajang’s population is increasing as buyers and
renters wish to move to find affordable housing in the suburbs (REHDASelangor 2018) as
they find many job and business opportunities in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and in Kajang
city itself. Kajang city rapid growth is in line with the expansion needs of the city center
with a focus on providing better quality of life, choice for upgrades and cities with avail-
able facilities and spacious land offerings.

3.2 Mature urbanization around Kajang

According to Kajang Municipal Council (2018), Kajang started as a small old town that
had underwent a few changes. Kajang has turned to be one of the towns with dense popu-
lation in Malaysia with 300,000 residents in 2010. Based on the forecast provided by the
MPKj Development Planning Department in 2015, the total population of MPKj for 2014
was 884,981 (see Table  2). However, the study focused more on the Kajang Mukim of
55,399 (6.26%) population.

3.3 Development in the city of Kajang for upper class demand

The City of Kajang is a strategic area surrounded by affordable housing (REHDASelangor

2018). Kajang 2 area is a newly integrated development with attractive facilities includ-
ing a recreational park and swimming pool. Kajang 2 provides security and a harmonious
lifestyle for its residents. In Kajang-Semenyih there is a newly completed township called
Kajang East. The housing is designed with award-winning architecture for a luxurious liv-
ing experience and equipped with major amenities around it. Soon, Kajang will emerge as
a modern metropolis in the Hulu Langat district area with a variety of housing and lifestyle
options offered. In addition, special PR1MA HOME schemes owned by the middle-income
group also exist in Greater Kuala Lumpur such as PR1MA @ Kajang in Kajang, Selangor
(Abidin 2019).

Table 2  Number of population Mukim Population Percentage (%)

according to Mukim (sub-
district) Source Kajang
Kajang 55,399 6.26
Municipal Council (2018)
Cheras 272,043 30.74
Semenyih 381,161 43.07
Beranang 111,088 12.53
Hulu Langat 61,506 6.95
Hulu Semenyih 3784 0.45
Total 884,981 100

*Population forecasts of MPKj 2014 are based on the forecasts of the

Department of Statistics Malaysia 2010

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 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

3.4 Southern KL migration

The National Property Information Center (NAPIC) identified that the property prices in
Hulu Langat are lower than the average house prices in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.
This has led to an interest in buying real estate in the Kajang growth corridor, where gated
lifestyle and guarded developments have grown exponentially (AllianceDBS 2014). Alli-
ancesDBS explains that KL South migration is imminent where key developers like Sim-
eDarby and others in the Kajang/Semenyih corridor want to buy land immediately. The
city of Kajang will also be one of the best hotspots in the future, plus it has the MRT (Mass
Rapid Transit) stations. According to REHDASelangor (2018), real estate availability with
lower price compared to cities such as Kota Damansara and Petaling Jaya, especially with
public transport links, makes Kajang the next great choice for property seekers.

3.5 Kajang future development

In 2015, the Kajang Municipal Council’s (MPKj)’s vision is to make Kajang a city of
choice for living with advanced urban amenities and a sustainable environment launched
for public review through the MPKj Local Draft Plan 2035 (Replacement) (Kajang Munic-
ipal Council 2018). There are some significant changes in the local draft plan including
conversion of former zones for various purposes into future residential zones, with some
areas being designated for industrial zone development. Plans to improve public facilities
in the city center and place emphasis on TOD have also been included in the draft. The
same attention is put to develop infrastructure to conserve green areas. In conclusion, the
development of Kajang city is meeting the needs of the urban development concept in line
with the MPKj vision.

4 Research method

4.1 Liveability framework

The dimension of the liveable city for housing is the assessment of home ownership to
ensure that the needs of the people in the area are met. Balsas (2004) emphasized that the
environment should be safe, clean, beautiful, economically important, affordable, efficient,
have good infrastructure, including attractive cultural activities, contain large parks, main-
tain good public transport, support wide opportunities for employment and providing posi-
tive social cohesion. Vergunst (2003) has introduced an ornamental framework in his study
of a suburb of Aspinge, Sweden. Liveability framework explains that liveability is made up
of interactions between the five variables namely local population, community life, level of
service, local economy and physical location. This framework is based on Lynch’s (1998)
theory.
Lynch’s theory is based on a set of performance dimensions for the spatial form of a
city built on the fundamental values of sustainability, communication and openness (Lynch
et  al. 2012). The process of identifying suitable performance characteristics using three
selection criteria. First, the basics, physical constraints and needs are considered. Sec-
ond, cultural practices and habits related to a location. Finally, features that have dimen-
sion quality values that do not assume values or standards. Dimensions are performance
characteristics that measure the nature of human purpose. Dimensions are interrelated and

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Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

Fig. 2  Framework of Liveability Source Vergunst (2003)

support one another. There are five type of dimensions of good city namely fitness, taste
and perception, fit, access and control, and ownership (see Fig. 2).
Local inhabitants like number, demographic structure (age and gender) and lifestyle are
among the important factors. Next, community life, while service level refers to communi-
cation, school, oldfolks home, and shops. Local economy represents the ability of the place
to generate income and employment, and finally, the physical place describes the landscape
and buildings in the area. Vergunst has categorized the study of liveability into five main
variables by emphasizing the unexpected meaning of liveability. It depends on the interests
and perspectives of the researcher or participant who may emphasize the different relation-
ships of the framework. He suggested that the framework should be viewed as a heuristic
model to enable different communities to discover and explore perspectives in a broader
context (Vergunst 2003). In general, the dimensions selected will vary depend on the disci-
pline, culture and objectives of the researcher (van Kamp et al. 2003). While Abdul Samad
et.al. (2008) emphasie that liveable city potrayed a sustainable quality of life which provide
and ensure tranquility of the urban community.
The property market has been considered as the most imperfect market because each
property has different characteristics, lacking latest information, number of buyers and sell-
ers who are not permanent and certain parties are capable to influence the prices of certain
properties on the market (Gurran et al 2015). The characteristics can be observed in 2015,
the housing market is still struggling to balance between supply and demand. Khazanah
Research Institute (2015) explained unaffordable housing market either is a supply that
decreases far below the demand or is too unsuitable for change of demand. The housing
supply is responsive and able accomplish an effective demand. It is also driven by land
costs and use, planning policy, and construction costs. Housing market also influenced by
other factors such as economic, social, political, legal and technological change (Mahamud

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 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

Fig. 3  The conceptual framework

on home ownership for liveable
city or urban liveability

and Salleh 2004). According to Ling and Almeida (2017), the imbalance in supply and
demand worsened in 2012–2014 due to the rise in house prices so far beyond the income
levels of most Malaysians. Therefore, ‘Conceptual Framework’ was developed by Shakur
et al (2018) to guide the direction of research on home ownership that contributes to live-
ability city in Kajang city. Figure 3 shows conceptual framework that discusses the concept
of home ownership and principles of liveability.
’World Bank senior property specialist’, Dao Harrison pointed out that more con-
sumer surveys need to be done to gather comprehensive information to understand
the real needs of those who want affordable housing in Malaysia. A strong assessment
should be done every two to three years by third parties to provide an objective assess-
ment of the housing situation. Harrison commented that the public sector should con-
duct surveys and find them doing this less (Yip et al. 2019). These are due to incomplete
and not updated databases as well as data that do not meet the spatial scale to enable the
analysis to conducted at the micro-level (DNH 2018).

4.2 Case study

The city of Kajang was selected as the sampling location involving five residential
parks, Taman Bukit Mewah, Taman Bukit, Taman Bukit Permai, Taman Bukit Kajang
Baru and Taman Kajang Jaya (Fig.  4). These five residental parks lie in the eastern
suburb of Kajang featuring older properties. It is suitable for those who want a home
equipped with amenities such as in (Fig.  5) (REHDASelangor 2018). Responsibility
for the development and maintenance of housing was longer in the hands of the state
(Szafrańska et al 2019). The Selangor government should also ensure that the liveability
of the area will improve, including the construction of affordable housing especially in
the fast-growing Kajang city. According to AllianceDBS (2014) information, Kajang
is a new urban trend known as the ’Evolution of KL South’. This is because the city
of Kajang is the growth area of the Kajang-Semenyih corridor, the most potential hot-
spot in ’Greater Kuala Lumpur’ for low cost land availability and existing infrastructure.

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Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

Case
study

Fig. 4  Case area-Taman Bukit Mewah, Taman Kajang Jaya, Taman Bukit Permai, Taman Bukit Kajang
Baru, Taman Bukit Kajang

Fig. 5  Map of Kajang city with infrastructure

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 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

Affordable house and housing projects are being carried out on a large scale in the
Kajang-Semenyih corridor (490 acres). In addition, the low cost of land at the prime
location makes the Metro Kajang Holdings (MKH) area one of the biggest residents of
South Kuala Lumpur. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influ-
ence home ownership in the city of Kajang. Comparison between Kajang (in the Hulu
Langat area) and Sg. Buloh (in Petaling district) is because both areas have the same
demographic and public transport access. Existing KTM trains through both area and
the MRT terminal station is also located at Sg. Buloh and Kajang.

5 Data collection and analysis

Data collection for this study used a triangulation method. Triangulation is a relevant
concept in the context of combining qualitative and quantitative research (Neuman 2007;
Zohrabi 2013). Patton (2002) states generalization as one of the criteria of quality case
studies depending on the case selected and studied. Validity in quantitative research is spe-
cific to the tests used—where triangulation methods used in qualitative research. Triangu-
lation is a strategy to increase the validity and reliability of research or evaluation of find-
ings. According to Golafshani (2003), data triangulation allows respondents in research to
assist researchers in research questions and with data collection. Methods such as observa-
tion, interview and recording will result in the construction of more authentic and reliable
reality. Methods such as observation, interview and recording will result in the construc-
tion of more authentic and reliable reality. Therefore, this study refers to the ‘Sheltair’s
Adaptive’ Management Framework by Timmer and Seymoar (2006) involves the Govern-
ment, the Private Sector to the residents towards urban life. The interview method was
conducted using purposive sampling aimed at those who were suitable with the purpose
of study. They are in line with the middle-income earners and the experts of the hous-
ing industry. Only certain groups can understand all the research questions that need to be
achieved, namely what are the main factors that influence home ownership in the city. With
in- depth interview, each respondent gets to share their experience to get the real picture of
the issue of home ownership in Malaysia.
The selection criteria for respondent 1 (first-time renters/home buyers) was low-income
householders who paid monthly rent or children who live with parents but were commit-
ted to the cost of housing. While the selection criteria for respondent 2 (homeowners) was
by looking at their resilience in terms of home installment repayments, utility bills, home
maintenance/repairs and tax rates (assessment tax). The selection of respondent 3 (hous-
ing industry expert) consisted of agencies involved in the implementation of the National
Housing Policy Action Plan for Terrace 4, the Selangor State Housing Blueprint and other
experts involved in management, policy and strategy, and development with more than
3 years’ experience in the real estate industry. The time taken for an interview was between
30 min to an hour and a half.

Table 3  Respondents for the Respondent No. of respondent

completed questionnaire
1 41 of potential homebuyer
2 60 of homeowner
3 20 of housing industry expert

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Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

The qualitative approach was conducted by means of a questionnaire distribution to

the respondents. The use of this questionnaire was conducted face-to-face between the
researcher and the respondents. Questions were asked in open-ended questions to get feed-
back and opinion from respondents. This approach is to identify factors that influence the
ability of homeowners, perceptions of access to PR1MA affordable housing schemes and
suggestions by respondents in Kajang city for government’s and developer’s action that
needs to be taken. The breakdown of the number of respondents is shown in Table 3.
The questionnaire also ensures the appropriateness of the dimensions and indicators
selected. For the evaluation of landscapes, it has been taken into account a combination of
dimensions proposed by Visser and Dam (2006) to show their influence on house prices in
the Netherlands; Leby and Hashim (2010), Lowe (2019), and Chih et al (2020) were used
to analyze the suitability of living or living areas that are considered relevant to the neigh-
borhood. Attributes are grouped into four dimensions:

1. Physical characteristics of the house (explain property prices such as lot size, volume,
surface area, building age and housing type),
2. Physical environmental characteristics (houses with more green (parks, open spaces)
and water features in the residential environment creates a premium house price).
3. Social environmental characteristics (the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood,
satisfaction in the urban environment, which is the moral support of neighborhood,
relationship with neighbour, help and assistance provided. Safety and crime; levels of
neighborhood security such as the frequency of property crime cases, incidents of injury
or accidents and security perspectives. These two factors play an important role in the
decision making when buying a home and therefore is in the determination of property
prices) and,
4. Functional characteristics of the residential environment (accessibility by choice of
residential location may affect house prices such as proximity to public transport and
highways; job opportunities, which are the most important component of their quality
of life as they provide a source of income or economic base for their living).

All the dimensions identified have been considered for the concept of urbanization and
the factors that influence home ownership in Kajang city.
The results of the interview showed several main factors that need to be prioritized
by the government and the private sector. Content analysis was used to analyze qualita-
tive methods. According to Krippendorff (2004), content analysis is a systematic research
method for analyzing text information in order to develop an assessment to make a sum-
mary of the information obtained. In the study, qualitative analysis was converted to
descriptive analysis that was coded and clustered. The analysis was carried out using the
Atlas t.i software. Results found there were fifteen (15) home ownership factor obtained
through face-to-face interviews with housing industry experts, homeowners and potential
homebuyers. For the Government actions, there were fourteen (14) home ownership factors
to be considered, namely, housing policy, bumiputera quota, transaction or sub-sale, prop-
erty investment, construction cost, ownership by foreigners, quality of life, assessment tax,
location, lifestyle, income, housing loan schemes, affordable housing schemes and owner-
ship titles. Whereas for Developers’ action, an additional factor that needs to be empha-
sized is the house supply price by developers. A content analysis of descriptive analysis
was carried out which was the action to be taken by the Government and the Developer
(seen in Table 4 and Table 5). The study also focuses on the application of homeownership

13


13
Table 4  Respondents reviews against government actions
Home ownership factors Frequency Percentage (%) Rank Frequency (poten- Percentage (%) Rank Frequency Percentage (%) Rank
(home- owner) tial home-buyer) (expert)

Government (Housing Policy) 68 14.5 2 80 14.5 3 92 22.6 1

Bumiputera Quota 12 2.6 11 7 1.3 10 24 5.9 8
Transaction/Subsale 45 9.6 4 34 6.2 6 10 2.5 12
Property Investment 29 6.2 7 34 6.2 6 35 8.6 4
Construction Cost 34 7.3 6 43 7.8 5 27 6.6 7
Ownership by foreigners 22 4.7 9 12 2.2 7 16 3.9 11
Quality of life 13 2.8 10 12 2.2 7 34 8.4 5
Assessment tax 36 7.7 5 0 0.0 – 9 2.2 13
Location 4 0.9 13 10 1.8 9 19 4.7 10
Lifestyle 105 22.4 1 92 16.7 2 30 7.4 6
Income 27 5.8 8 17 3.1 8 22 5.4 9
Housing loan scheme 62 13.2 3 75 13.6 4 43 10.6 3
Affordable housing scheme (PR1MA) 27 5.8 – 134 24.3 1 48 11.8 2
Ownership title 7 1.5 12 1 0.2 11 4 1.0 14
E. S. A. Shakur et al.
 Table 5  Respondents reviews against developer actions
Home ownership factors Frequency Percentage (%) Rank Frequency (poten- Percentage (%) Rank Frequency Percentage (%) Rank
(home-owner) tial home-buyer) (expert)

Property Investment 10 5.1 6 12 5.5 5 2 3.5 5

Affordable housing scheme 40 20.5 2 54 24.8 2 12 21.1 2
(PR1MA)
Lifestyle 4 2.1 7 7 3.2 6 5 8.8 3
Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

Transaction/Subsale 22 11.3 4 25 11.5 3 3 5.3 4

Quality of life 26 13.3 3 13 6.0 4 1 1.8 6
Construction Cost 12 6.2 5 25 11.5 3 12 21.1 2
House prices 81 41.5 1 82 37.6 1 20 35.1 1
Bumiputera quota – – – – – – 1 1.8 6
Ownership by foreigners – – – – – – 1 1.8 6

13
 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

and urbanization approaches in content analysis methods to identify the parameters for
view of homeownership proposed by residents and experts.

5.1 Government actions in Kajang city

The study was conducetd by interviewing respondents from all three categories of respond-
ents: homeowners, renters or potential homebuyers, and housing industry experts. Each of
these three categories respondents have providing their reviews on the main factors that the
Government should reflect in Table 4.
Respondent 1 (Potential Homebuyer) prioritizes the reviews of the Government
regarding the need to provide more affordable housing for middle-income earners
that corresponds to the suitable criteria such as Perbadanan 1Malaysia (PR1MA). The
PR1MA home scheme was introduced in the year 2012, specifically built for this group
of RM2500 to RM10,000 earners until 2016. However, in September 2017, income
eligibility has been changed between RM2500 to RM15,000. Thus made the PR1MA
scheme requirements limited as there is a high demand for this group.
Still could not afford to buy PR1MA house with high cost of living in the city.
not eligible after combining husband’s and wife’s salary.
In fact, PR1MA home prices eligibility should be revised because there are sev-
eral respondents who have children which suggests a higher living cost.
High commitment, salary is still the same and PR1MA house is still expensive
even for monthly installments. Necessities are also expensive.
Most respondents suffer from housing loan approval because they have other com-
mitments such as loans, education and others. Therefore, the respondents requested the
Government to facilitate the approval of loans for the PR1MA scheme.
It is hard to get approval for loan when you are working alone because there is no
proof of loan documents.
Various other problems faced when implementing the supply of PR1MA such as lack
of cooperation between Selangor state government and federal government, rising land
prices, the imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on building materials and so
on. While Respondents 2 (Homeowner), think there are three factors that need to be
considered by government namely lifestyle factor. Most respondents want the role of the
Government to control the price of things or provide subsidies for basic amenities after
the Government reduces the subsidy.
Grocery price should be reduced, petrol price should be in line with world’s price,
if the price decreases, then Malaysia should also decrease. It changes daily for the
other states. When we got BR1M, sellers took advantages by increasing the prices.
There should be law enforcers, ministers who come and oversee the selling prices
in the market at least once a week
In addition, the cost of public transport tariffs and parking costs should be reduced if
it is to encourage consumers to use public transport especially the students, the disabled
and the elderly.

13
Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

A lot of the development only focuses on cities where most people would go to.
Thus, making the city more populated and making the living cost higher over
time. Which is why the Government had to build facilities like commuters, and
buses eventhough the system is not good enough.
Subsequently, the Government should reduce or repeal the Government Service Tax
(GST) imposed of 6%. However, the new Government of Malaysia 2018 has acted by
eliminating the GST and replacing it with the Sales and Service Tax (SST). The high
living cost in urban areas will affect the population to stay in occupied homes. This
will directly reduce the quality of life to sustain and difficult to achieve the liveable city
concept.
GST also affect homeowners when they want to buy equipments for house mainte-
nance as it becomes more expensive. The contractors buy expensive equipments, but
the homeowners are the one who need to pay for it.
Finally, Respondent 3 (Housing Industry Expert) suggested that the Government is
the most important factor in ensuring that the increase in house prices are slow and con-
trolled. Next, the government should review the housing policy and individual qualifica-
tions or exercise one family to have one home. The middle-income group has the highest
demand for housing properties, but the developers are more likely to offer high-cost hous-
ing requirements. Additionally, house prices need to be supervised so that it does not rise
dramatically.
I am not sure whose role is it to control the speculators. Speculators are one of the
reasons for the increasing house price. This person already has five houses, yet he
still buys more. The control is now focused on the low cost and middle group. Even
with price under RM500,000, not everyone can afford it. This is also closely related
with loans.
Furthermore, the state government should have affordable housing policies to help
the people in the state to buy houses. In reponds to this need, the State OF Selangor has
embark on program such as Rumah Selangorku (My Selangor House) manage by the Sel-
angor Housing and Property Board. The division of the ratio of low cost, medium cost and
high-cost houses supply was prepared according to the level of income and housing needs
of each state population. Therefore.
The state government modifies the ratio of housing supply since there are a few states
that implemented ratio of 20, 20, 10 or 30, 10, 10 depends on the state government’s
needs and poverty level in the respective states.

5.2 Developer action in Kajang city

From Table 5, three respondents categories stated that the house prices by the developer
need to be addressed the most. Respondents 1 and Respondents 2 suggested the developer
to build a house under the price of RM300,000 which is affordable for the middle-income
earners in Malaysia. This supports the DOS (2014) statement that was discussed in Litera-
ture Review. Meanwhile, experts suggested that developers fulfil the house building rules
according to the quota of income categories imposed by the Government. In fact, it is nec-
essary to build more medium-cost houses according to the demand of those groups.

13
 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

Government should create an organization to control house price. They should con-
trol three things: (i) basics materials cost and reduce the tax, (ii) the land price, (iii)
the house price. Government should not let the developers have full control over
these things.
Most of the houses that are supposed to be for the Malays are also expensive, when
it should be under RM300,000. The government did not control the developers. The
developers will offer to non-Malays and foreigners if the quota for Malays is not fully
sold.
In summary, the main factors of home ownership for urban life can be determined
because these factors are different according to the reviews of each respondent. Besides,
each of the main factors is suggested by all three categories of respondents for the gov-
ernment’s actions and the developer’s actions. Subsequently, all 15 main home ownership
factors contributing to the liveable city will be used for the development of the assessment
matrix framework for the next step.

6 Discussion

Accordingly, fourteen (14) of these factors have been stated in importance by the respond-
ents. The results of study through the views of respondents by homeowners, potential buy-
ers and experts in interviews have found that perceptions or illustrations through theories
and the summary of literature review on the factors that influence homeownership for the
liveable city are similar to the real situation in Kajang city, Selangor. Figure 6 shows the
identified fourteen (14) factors influencing homeownership for the liveable city.

LOCATION
DEVELOPER GOVERNMENT

SUB SALE CONSTRUCTION

COST

BUMIPUTERA & LAND

NON- OWNERSHIP FOR
BUMIPUTERA Factors influencing FOREIGNERS
homeownership
PROPERTY HOUSING LOAN
INVESTMENT SCHEME

PROPERTY INCOME
TAX

QUALITY AFFORDABLE
OF LIFE LIFE- HOUSING
STYLE SCHEME

Fig. 6  Factors influencing homeownership for liveable city

13
Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

The result for this study is to get insights by each respondent on the strategies that need
to be taken by the Government and Developers to address the main factors. Potential buy-
ers think that PR1MA house scheme needs to be monitored and controlled by the Govern-
ment in accordance to the standard of creating the house scheme. In fact, the construction
of the scheme requires the cooperation from three sides, which are the federal, state and
local governments. It is found that some state governments do not support the PR1MA
scheme provided by the federal government built in their state without providing any spe-
cial land for the construction of the scheme. Homeowners want the government to empha-
size lifestyle strategies to control prices for reduced living costs (GST dissolved). Home-
owners want the government to reduce the cost of public transport fares, the cost of parking
tickets especially for seniors, the disabled and students. In addition, the city of Kajang has
become a focus for consumers to use the public transport such as MRTs and Commuters.
Through policy and legislation, the Federal Government’s cooperation with the State
Government should involve affordable housing projects for the people; the Federal Govern-
ment needs to introduce standards with the State Government especially in the category of
affordable housing by state. The city of Kajang is made up of many middle-class people.
Finally, the program needs to promote the First Home Deposit Financing Scheme. The pro-
gram is dedicated to assisting home buyers with the 10% deposit financing for their first
home.
Potential buyers, homeowners and experts emphasize that a developer should build
and set a home price below RM300,000. This is the affordability range for middle income
earners including the repayment of other loans. The developers need to meet this group’s
demand without focusing solely on the profit. In addition, the city of Kajang, located on
the outskirts of the city, has been the focus of potential buyers and investors to invest in
the area. Whereas in terms of the law, the developers must comply with government regu-
lations by replacing the Malay Reserve Land. Most of the land in Kajang city is Malay
reserve land but for the sake of getting profit, the developers have been selling the housing
to non-Malays and there is a corruption in providing bumiputera quota set by the Gov-
ernment for 30%. Experts also noted that in addition to adhering to the rules for build-
ing affordable housing, the developers also need to focus on environmental protection and
cleanliness around the construction site as the city of Kajang has been known for floods
since the 1970s. Kajang City is a developing area especially in the upstream areas includ-
ing MRT public transport sites, housing, shopping complexes and so on. As a result, many
drainage ditches were blocked by sand from the construction site causing mudslides.

7 Conclusions

The results of the study show that the key factors include income, affordability, liability
of cost of living and house price affects home ownership in Kajang city. This help to con-
tribute to academic knowledge in terms of discoveries and fill the research knowledge gap
in terms of strengthening theory and literature in the field housing affordability and house
prices movement, and the liveable city concept. Therefore, the contribution of this study
has identified fourteen (14) main factors that influence homeownership, which contrib-
ute to body of knowledge for study of home ownership and liveable city concept. In the
most significant order namely income, housing loan scheme, location, government role,
developer role, PR1MA affordable housing scheme, construction cost, Bumiputera quo-
tas, lifestyle, quality of life, real estate investment and transfer, assessment/property tax,

13
 E. S. A. Shakur et al.

land ownership by foreigners and ownership title. The study focuses on the application of
homeownership and urbanization approaches in content analysis methods to identify the
views of homeownership proposed by residents and experts as well as obtain confirma-
tion from housing industry experts. There aim to study at proposing to develop the most
important of significant view parameters in the homeownership matrix framework for the
liveable city in future studies. The result shows that home ownership is not affected solely
by the ability of the populations or income factor. Each of the parties have their respec-
tive reviews on how to reduce these issues. Housing experts and the publics are looking
forward to cooperation from the Government and the Developers in helping to overcome
the problem of home ownership in urban areas. Potential homebuyers desperately need an
increase in medium cost affordable housing units that are compatible with their installment
payment abilities. Homeowners are more concerned with the higher cost of living that can
reason their eternal sustain in the city to decline. Experts prefer the Government to review
the current National Housing Policy to improve the stability of the middle-income earners.
At least by controlling the activities of housing developers and real estate investors that are
profit oriented. In the past, the Malaysian Government confronted the challenge of control-
ling the developer’s action in determining house prices. In 2018, the expectation is for the
transformation of the new Government of Malaysian to address the issue of home owner-
ship not only based on affordability but also focus on infrastructure. Finally, Government
should listen to people’s voices on their problem in owning a house. This is to ensure that
the National Housing Policy goals, namely ’One family, one house’ can be achieved.

7.1 Limitations of the study

Throughout the study, there are four limitations to this study. First, this study focuses on
subsets of Kajang city only. If the study area are equipped with the infrastructure, equip-
ment makes it easier for researchers to consider in terms of satisfaction and affordability of
the facilities provided. It is in line with the need of the study to meet the goals of the Selan-
gor state government to achieve the concept of housing in terms of affordable housing and
accessibility. Second, it is difficult to get cooperation with the residents because the factor
of security, where most of the doors is always closed. Various steps were conducted to
obtained the respondents who are the middle-income group. Third, statistical data related
to the middle-income group is also difficult to obtain from the Department of Statistics
Malaysia. Officials from the statistics department thought the data was difficult to obtain
due to microeconomic factors from the Statistics Department and also the importance of
the department’s policy. Fourth, the data on the number of units of houses are not struc-
tured and lack of data division according to the housing type such as Second Storey Ter-
race and First Storey Terrace either Semi-D type, Medium Cost type or Low-Cost type.
Therefore, purposive sampling was used because it does not require accurate statistical
data. The questionnaire used in this study was ‘detailed research’. The researcher took steps
conducting the face to face interview with respondents from house to house to meet the
criteria required in this study.

Acknowledgements  This study was supported by the Institute of Environment and Development (LEST-
ARI) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. We are grateful to anonymous referees and editor of the journal for
their valuable comments and suggestions an attempt to improve the quality of the article.

13
Home ownership for liveable city: case study of Kajang City,…

Compliance with Ethical Standards 

Conflict of interest  The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical statement  The paper reflects the authors’ own research and analysis in a truthful and complete man-
ner.

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