HOUSING AFFORDABILITY AMONG GEN Y: HOW TO IMPROVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING SCHEMES?

International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) Volume 9, Issue 10, October 2018, pp. 1481 1489, Article ID: IJCIET_09_10_148 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?jtype=ijciet&vtype=9&itype=10 ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316 IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed HOUSING AFFORDABILITY AMONG GEN Y: HOW TO IMPROVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING SCHEMES? Faraziera M.R Quantity Surveying Department, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Gelugor, Pulau Pinang Hamizah Liyana T.A Quantity Surveying Department, Faculty of Built Environment & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, 81310 Johor, ABSTRACT Affordable housing is a prerequisite element to show a country is well-developed in terms of social economy growth and social welfare. While in the view of affordability, it is a relationship between and people. In fact, housing affordability issues happened in every world cities of the planet but no one envisages it properly especially when this issues fall upon on young generation, so-called Generation Y. Generally, this generation is the descendant of Baby Boomers/ Generation X, who born between the years 1979 and 1994. Gen Y is a cohort made up of about 60 million individuals and now makes 44% of the population in Malaysia. Comparing with their parent generation, Generation Y encounter incredibly high house prices, greater loans, significant financial stress and eventually trapped in financial planning crisis early in their life. However, the Malaysia government did realize the outrage of Malaysia citizen and introduced several housing schemes especially for those new workforces in nationwide. Those housing schemes are included Housing Loan Scheme, My First Home Scheme, Perumahan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (PRIMA), Rumah Idaman Rakyat, My Home Scheme and Youth Housing Scheme (YHS) which are beneficial to the first-homebuyers. Despite the efforts by Malaysian government, housing affordability still remains an issue among Malaysian Generation Y. Thus, this study carried out to determine the effectiveness of government affordable housing scheme and suggestion on how to improve it. It is also hope that it could be seen as able to contribute to the knowledge and understanding on housing affordability level for the young generation. Key words: housing; affordability; Generation Y; Malaysia; housing scheme; homeownership. Cite this Article: Faraziera M.R and Hamizah Liyana T.A, Housing Affordability among Gen Y : How to Improve Affordable Housing Schemes?, International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) 9(10), 2018, pp. 1481 1489. http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?jtype=ijciet&vtype=9&itype=10 http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1481 editor@iaeme.com

Housing Affordability among Gen Y: How to Improve Affordable Housing Schemes? 1. INTRODUCTION An objective benchmark to measure the affordability of property prices by the World Bank and United Nations is to compare it against the annual household income. An affordable housing is when property prices are a multiple of 3.0 or less of the annual household income [8]. Unfortunately, such definition fail to take into account for the first homebuyer especially Generation Y [3]. By 2020, Generation Y will comprise half the global workforce. The number is uprising significantly, and it will continue to do so as more young people achieve independence and gradually move out of their parent s homes. By far, Millennials are the largest source of new demand for first-time home purchasers [7]. Generally, the housing supplies are increased, but have the limited effect on affordability [11]. Malaysian Generation Y only can sigh out their financial incapability in purchasing their own house. This somehow doubt on the resolution ability of those housing initiatives [12]. 2. CONCEPT OF HOUSING AFFORDABILITY 2.1. The Measurements of Housing Affordability Since the definition of housing affordability is still vague, there are multiple approaches have been identified to measure housing affordability [6],[12]. 2.1.1. The Ratio Measurement In this approach, it said that a household paying exceeds 30% of its gross annual income on total housing prices (including principal and interest payments on the utilities, property taxes, mortgage, and insurance) suffering a housing financial burden. While if a household pays more than 50% if their gross annual income on housing the household has a severe housing financial burden. In other words, the gross annual income is below 30% that is considered as affordable. The 30% as the benchmark of income standard for housing affordability is because the 30 percent rule was viewed as a rule of thumb for the amount of income that a household could spend [4]. 2.1.2. The Residual Approach Residual approach measures affordability in the aspect of the ability of household to keep the housing costs and other basic costs of living in well balance (Burke, 2004). Overall, this approach indicates a sufficient income for housing purchasing after spending on necessities needs [4]. However, this approach facing a conflict that the housing is unaffordable when the balance of household income is below the living standard benchmark after buying a house and the household is categorized as dealing with housing stress or shelter poverty. 2.1.3. Median Multiple Median Multiple (MM) divided the median house price by the median household income. If it can be financed below three times a household s median annual income, the housing is regarded as affordable. As there are six nations (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom) are still using their historical trend where their housing affordability ranged between 2.0 to 3.0 way back then, thus the median multiple benchmark is set as 3.0. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY For this study, an online questionnaire survey had been designed and it is sent out through email to the targeted respondents. The targeted respondents who are eligible to involve in the research, would be the young workforce in identified housing zone. The scope of the research shall be as followed; 1) The respondent is young working Malaysian; 2) The respondent are from Kuala Lumpur and Penang; 3)The respondent is current home owner, or 4) The respondent is prospective buyer currently resided in renting units or stayed with family. This http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1482 editor@iaeme.com

Faraziera M.R and Hamizah Liyana T.A is as per the reason for the study to identify the effectiveness of government housing schemes in assisting Generation Y. 4. DATA ANALYSIS 4.1. Section 1: The Demographic Information Personal information of respondents is being requested in this part. There are four questions included which are age, marital status, education qualification and monthly net income. Table 1 Summary of Respondent's Personal Information Respondent s Personal Information Category No. of Respondent Age 23-28 years old 61 29-34 years old 50 35 years old and above 11 Marital status Single 87 Married 35 Educational qualification High school 19 Bachelor degree 56 Diploma 20 Master 16 PhD 11 Monthly Net Income Below RM2, 999 62 RM 3, 000- RM4, 999 39 RM5, 000 RM6, 999 13 RM7, 000 RM9, 999 7 RM10,000 and above 1 4.2. Section 2: Level of Housing Affordability This section aims to determine the level of housing affordability. There are five questions included which are current form of tenure, anticipated age to purchase first house, affordable housing price, age to home-ownership and source of capital to home-ownership. Table 2 below shows the summary of level of housing affordability. Table 2 Summary of Level of Housing Affordability Respondant s Feedback Category No. of Respondent Staying with parents 34 Current form of tenure Private rent 68 Owner occupier 20 Anticipated age to buy first house Affordable housing price Age to homeownership Source of capital to homeownership 25-29 years old 50 30-35 years old 43 36 years old and above 9 Below RM200K 32 RM200K RM399K 51 RM400K-RM599K 11 RM600K-RM799K 8 RM800K and above 0 25-29 years old 4 30-35 years old 10 36 and above 6 Bank loan 8 Government s initiative 2 Personal savings 4 Parent s help 6 http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1483 editor@iaeme.com

Housing Affordability among Gen Y: How to Improve Affordable Housing Schemes? 4.3. Section 3: Effectiveness of Government Housing Schemes 4.3.1. Measures of Central Tendency From the results shown in table 3, the modes for most of the questions are at 3 (Agree). Thus, this explains that most of the respondents are agree to all the listed features of existing housing schemes which reflect the understanding level and satisfaction level towards government housing initiatives. Table 3 Measures of Central Tendency of Effectiveness of Government Housing Schemes No Aspects Mean Median Mode 1. The quality of houses under government initiatives is unacceptable and not within your preference. 2.34 2 2 2. The buying process is vague and bias among applicants 2.40 2 2 3. The provided housing schemes does not well-advertised 2.17 2 2 4. Most of the housing locations under government initiatives are not strategic and attractive 2.46 3 3 5. Government does not provide suitable down payment assistance option for first- home purchasers 2.53 3 3 6. Housing built by government is quite expensive and out of your acceptable range 2.68 3 3 7. The supply of affordable housing is highly inadequate. 2.89 3 3 8. The information of housing policy introduced by government is vague and insufficient. 2.16 2 2 9. The terms and conditions of proposed housing schemes does not meet the financial capability of young people 3.01 3 3 10. The qualified applicant under government housing initiatives is limited and competitive for young generation. 3.01 3 3 4.3.2. Relative Importance Index (RII) Table 4 shows the Relative Importance Index (RII) for the effectiveness of government housing schemes in assisting young generation to homeownership. The main issue that facing is the qualified applicant under government housing initiatives is limited and competitive for young generation with RII of 0.75. PR1MA was set up in late 2012 to provide affordable housing for middle-income urban residents.it received 500,000 applications for 80,000 houses as the end of quarter of 2015 [1]. However, there are 33% of the respondents did not qualify for any affordable home, while 39% did not even bother to apply. Only 18% of the respondents applied for the PR1MA scheme. Table 4 RII of Effectiveness of Housing Affordability No Aspects RII Rank 1. The qualified applicant under government housing initiatives is limited and 0.75 1 competitive for young generation. 2. The terms and conditions of proposed housing schemes does not meet the 0.75 1 financial capability of young people 3. The supply of affordable housing is highly inadequate. 0.72 3 4. Housing built by government is quite expensive and out of your acceptable 0.67 4 range 5. Government does not provide suitable down payment assistance option for 0.63 5 first-home purchasers 6. Most of the housing locations under government initiatives are not strategic 0.61 6 and attractive 7. The buying process is vague and bias among applicant 0.60 7 8. The quality of houses under government initiatives is unacceptable and not 0.58 8 within your preference. 9. The provided housing schemes does not well-advertised 0.54 9 10. The information of housing policy introduced by government is vague and insufficient. 0.54 9 http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1484 editor@iaeme.com

Faraziera M.R and Hamizah Liyana T.A Meanwhile, it has the same RII with the terms and conditions of proposed housing schemes do not meet the financial capability of young people, which has a RII of 0.71. These two issues clearly showcase the inefficiency of government housing schemes in assisting Generation Y to own a home. Most of the respondents think that the scheme may not help the one with lower salary which does not match the requirement of the scheme and hence cannot be benefit able from the scheme. This is just unfair for those with salary with are not as high as the salary required to have qualification to loan in order to buy a house [9]. In a recent interview, PR1MA s CEO Dato Abd Mutalib Alias, announced that some people would be allowed to buy second homes under PR1MA. Due to these kinds of situation and coupled with the restriction in access to credit imposed by Bank Negara, it is found that few first-time homebuyers only taking advantage of PR1MA and more people who already have an existing property and can get access to credit, ending up buying a second home via PR1MA [5]. The third ranking would go to The supply of affordable housing is highly inadequate, with a RII of 0.72. With that, the central bank said the issue of affordable housing, which reflects the supply-demand imbalances in Malaysia, worsened during the 2012 to 2014 period. They said that the new housing supply feel short of the increase in demand during these years. According to Bank Negara Malaysia s 2016 Annual Report, the shortage of affordable housing could exceed one million units. Among the four states with the highest concentration of urban population, the shortage of affordable housing was largest in Kuala Lumpur, followed by Penang and Johor. On the other hand, Selangor was found to have a surplus of affordable houses [10]. Meanwhile, Housing built by government is quite expensive and out of your acceptable range obtained the forth place with RII of 0.67. In fact, housing prices Under the Housing Facilitation Fund which amounted RM500 million provide by PR1MA will used to build houses with the selling price ranging between RM 100,000 and RM 400,000. This range of price is 20 per cent lower than the previous market price under this programme. Although the price of the housing unit is cheaper now, it is still not affordable for those low and middle income groups especially those who have family even the small one [9]. Next, Government does not provide suitable down payment assistance option for first-home purchasers, placed the fifth ranking with a RII of 0.63. There are many young people interested to buy a house, but normally disqualified for loans. This statement is referred to the 9 th Asia Property Market Sentiment Report by iproperty.com., it shows the calculations of My First Home Scheme are in fact driving Generation Y into more debts instead of solving their hardships. At the same time, Most of the housing locations under government initiatives are not strategic and attractive ranked sixth place with have a RII of 0.61. As PR1MA chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Mutalib Alias says location is essential but state governments often allocated land in areas where they have projected to urbanize but these areas are inconvenient to access amenities and transportation links [2]. Their survey shows respondents want to be close to school have access to transportation, close to clinics and shops. However, most of the houses offered are normally far away from MRT link, highways and other facilities. However, The buying process is vague and bias among applicants, ranked seventh ranking with RII of 0.60. This is due to the allocation of PR1MA is through an open balloting process. If one gets a PR1MA house, a 10-year moratorium is imposed and during which time the property is not allowed to be sold or transferred to another party without prior approval from PR1MA. Furthermore, the eighth ranking is fell into the quality of houses under government initiatives is acceptable and within your preference, with a RII of 0.58. Based on a private property developer in the Klang Valley, he claimed that the cheap housing prices offered by the government but the quality is not within the preference of buyers. This is due http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1485 editor@iaeme.com

Housing Affordability among Gen Y: How to Improve Affordable Housing Schemes? to the perception of cheap price produce a low quality product that had been in most of the buyers [5]. The provided housing schemes are well-advertised and The information of housing policy introduced by government is clear enough. placed the second last and last place with same indexes of 0.54 respectively. The result represents that most of the respondents are known about the housing schemes that promoted by government. The details information of housing schemes are available online and reachable for anyone. Thus, the most of the respondents are agreeing with that and understand about the housing policy. 4.4. Section 3: Suggestions on Improving Housing Schemes 4.4.1. Measure of Central Tendency Table 3 above shows the mode, median and mean for the questions in Section 4. The modes for all the questions are 3 (agree) only. Thus, this shows that most of the respondents agree to all the listed solutions on improving the housing schemes in assisting young generation. It can be said that majority of respondents have the mutual agreements on all the solutions and they are equally essential to improve government housing initiatives. Table 5 Measure of Central Tendency of Suggestions on Improving Housing Schemes No Aspects Mean Median Mode 1. The existing and planned affordable housing should be well 3.30 3 3 published and reach the right people. 2. Government agencies should establish a platform for public to 3.31 3 3 access all information on affordable housing. 3. Readjustment on housing prices according to young 3.35 3 3 generation s residual income is necessary 4. The quality of affordable houses should be able match with the 3.32 3 4 current market benchmark. 5. Those affordable housing should be allocated with convenient 3.33 3 3 public transportation and easy to assess facilities 6. Government should provide multiple down payment assistance option especially for young generation 3.33 3 4 4.4.2. Relative Importance Index (RII) Table 4 shows the Relative Importance Index (RII) for the suggestion on improving government housing schemes. The data received in the Section 4 of questionnaire was analyzed by Relative Importance Index (RII) method to determine the relative importance of ways to solve the problems of government housing initiatives in assisting Malaysian Generation Y to home ownership identified by the literature survey. No Aspects RII Rank 1. Readjustment on housing prices according to young generation s residual income is necessary 2. Those affordable housing should be allocated with convenient public transportation and easy to assess facilities 3. Government should provide multiple down payment assistance option especially for young generation. 4. The quality of affordable houses should be able match with the current market benchmark. 5. Government agencies should establish a platform for public to access all information on affordable housing. 6. The existing and planned affordable housing should be well published and reach the right people. 0.84 1 0.83 2 0.83 2 0.83 2 0.83 2 0.82 3 Readjustment on housing prices according to young generation s residual income is necessary, ranks the top in the list of suggestions with RII of 0.84. The high cost living today http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1486 editor@iaeme.com

Faraziera M.R and Hamizah Liyana T.A has led young generation into a fewer residual income. The salary left for purchasing is inadequate to buy a skyrocketing housing price. While national and state governments should continue to apply downward pressure on house prices, the federal government needs to generate more upward pressure on wages in order to close the gap between market conditions and the desire of Malaysian families to own a home, said Yin Shao Loong of Institute Rakyat. Thus, a readjustment on housing priced need to be reviewed reexamined and rechecked according to the young worker low wages. The second ranking goes to those affordable housing should be allocated with convenient public transportation and easy to assess facilities, which has a RII of 0.83. Thus, it explains that majority of respondents are prefer an affordable house which has good accessibility to public transport and facilities[12]. Meanwhile, the Victorian Council of Social Service and the Australian Conservation Foundation affirms the perspective of affordable housing is its location must provide convenient accessibility to access to services and facilities, employment and education, preventing concentrations of low-moderate income earners in disadvantaged locations Besides, it is found that most of the Generation Y prefer to go against residual income where they will risk financial hardship rather than stay in suburban cities that far from their workplace and various facilities such as shops, schools, hospitals and others (Bramley, 2012).However, with the extended light rail transit network and the newly constructed mass rapid transit lines, location may not be an issue once these systems are fully up and running. The suggestion of Government should provide multiple down payment assistance option especially for young generation, placed same ranking with above (RII=0.83). Down payment assistance is important to assist respondents to homeownership. It is regarded as kick-starter to encourage respondent to own a house. Therefore, government should look into a more suitable down payment assistance option especially for young generation. Government should also offer a lower and flexible rate of the loan with lower monthly installment to mitigate their burden in loan payment. The rate of rising living cost should be controlled under an appropriate strategy in order for people to cope with the unchanged income [9]. On the other hand, The quality of affordable houses should be able match with the current market benchmark, with the same RII of 0.83 as above two suggestions. This result can show that most of the respondents are taking the quality of affordable houses as a serious matter. They desire to own a decent house with an affordable price. Furthermore, McCrindle M. (2016) found out that young generations nowadays expect to own a decent house that is bigger in size and at golden location. Meanwhile, the least effective suggestion on improving housing schemes would be the existing and planned affordable housing should be well published and reach the right people, which has the same index (0.77) with Government agencies should establish a platform for public to access all information on affordable housing, The result shown that sufficient information does not deliver an effective housing policy to the Malaysian Generation Y. Besides, there are 17 responses out of 122 respondents to point out their opinion on improving housing schemes. Firstly, prioritizing Malaysian and equality among nationality not by race is one of the suggestions provided by 5 respondents. Although many housing schemes emphasis on Malaysia citizen only, still respondents think it is underlying inequality issues among races. Housing affordability issues would not be solved when the distribution of affordable houses is according to the proportion of the races. It should only allow those citizens who are in needs to own an affordable house. However, there are few of respondents opinions on establishment of government housing schemes. The government authorities should control the developers to build more affordable houses instead of pushing all the responsibilities on government housing schemes alone. http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1487 editor@iaeme.com

Housing Affordability among Gen Y: How to Improve Affordable Housing Schemes? Respondents are recommended that government should implement related housing regulations on developer to at least build affordable houses every year for the low-income group so that the affordable houses are available everywhere and not just particular countryside regions only. Moreover, there are respondents think that government should allow new developer to enter housing development market instead of major developers who are normally profit-oriented to control the trend of housing market. 5. CONCLUSIONS The sky-rocketing housing prices had made the dream to homeownership even tougher and longer for Generation Y. Thus, homeownership is more likely can be achieved in during midaged time. This is shown by the results of the findings which show the positive relationship between age of homeownership and affordable housing price. Majority of respondents agreed with the qualified applicant under government initiatives is limited and competitive for young generation. Meanwhile, most of the respondents are reported that the terms and conditions of proposed housing schemes do not meet the financial capability of young people. In other words, the supplies of affordable houses are still not able to meet the demand of young people. Moreover, most of the housing schemes are focusing on first- time home buyers which mean that young people have to compete with applicants who are middle-income groups. Even though they are qualified to become applicant, they found that they are unable to afford the down payment or monthly mortgage payment with their little wages.most of the respondent found the most effective way to improve current housing schemes is readjustment on housing prices according to young generation s residual income is necessary..besides that, many of respondents concern about the down payment options. It can be told that most of them are relying on bank institutions or parents help to overcome the obstacles. Thus, government should prepare multiple down payment options for young workers who are unable to pay huge amount deposits initially. In short, housing affordability is a long-term battle which required contributions, efforts and sacrifices from every organization. Even if the Generation Y is able to catch up to the homeownership rate, the problem would be repeated again in the following generation. Thus, shaping an effective housing policy requires the knowledge from expert and perceptions of every income groups and ought to be updated periodically as the preference, trends and standards towards homeownership are changing in any minutes. It requires a significant attention on it to work the most affordable housing for the betterment of the nation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge the research grant provided by the Universiti Sains Malaysia under the Short Term Grant Scheme (Project No. 304/PPBGN/6313305). REFERENCES [1] Anbalagan, V., 2015. PR1MA now chasing profit, not helping first-time owners, says house buyers group. The Malaysian Insider. [2] Bernama, 2016. Call To Review PR1MA House Prices. [Online] Available at: http://property.bernama.com/detail.php?id=1198752 [3] Bujang, A. A., Jiram, W. R. A., Zarin, H. A. & Anuar, F. H. M., 2015. Measuring the Gen Y Housing Affordability Problem. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Volume 6, pp. 22-25. [4] Henman P., J. A., 2012. Exploring the use of residual meausures of housing affordability in Australia: methodologies and concepts, Queensland: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Melbourne, Australia. http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1488 editor@iaeme.com

Faraziera M.R and Hamizah Liyana T.A [5] Ismail, I., 2014. Is PR1MA The Answer To Malaysia s Urban Housing Crisis?. [Online] Available at: http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/521854-is-pr1ma-the-answer-tomalaysia-s- urban-housing-crisis.html [6] M.S.Norazmawati, 2012. Affordable. International Journal of Academic Research, 4(3), pp. 75-82. [7] Mc Crindle, M., October,2016. Generation Y and Housing Affordability, s.l.: The MccCrindle Blog. [8] Muniz, M., 2015. Affordable Housing - A Global Crisis. [Online] Available at: http://www.globalrealestateexperts.com/2015/12/affordable-housing-a-global- crisis/ [Accessed 7th December 2015]. [9] Sulochana, 2012. Housing Issues in Malaysia. [Online] Available at: https://economicsintaylors.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/housing-issues-in-malaysia/ [10] The Star, 2017. Undersupply of affordable houses seen to worsen. [11] Woetzel, J., Mischke, J. & Ram, S., 2014. The World s Housing Crisis Doesn t Need a Revolutionary Solution. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/12/the-worldshousing-crisis-doesnt-need-a-revolutionary- solution [Accessed December 2014]. [12] Yang, Z. & Chen, J., 2014. Housing Affordability and Housing Policy in Urban China. China. http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp 1489 editor@iaeme.com