THE Federal Government should build more People’s Housing Project (PPR) for low-income groups who are not qualified to obtain housing loans in Penang.

State Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said the state was now in the midst of identifying several plots of land for the Federal Government to build such housing here.

“This group of people can then rent the PPR housing units from the Federal Government. Once we have the land, we hope it will honour its promise by building more PPR units.

“Records showed that Penang, with 999 PPR units from four projects so far, has the lowest number of such units after Labuan which has 500 units from one project,” he told a press conference at Komtar on Sunday.

On another matter, Jagdeep said a discussion with Bank Negara Malaysia early this year found that there was a 60% bank loan rejection rate among housing applicants for low-cost and low medium-cost units.

He said if the Federal Government was sincere in helping house buyers, then it should urge Bank Negara to relax its conditions for such applicants.

“This include giving a 100% loan, reintroducing the developers interest bearing scheme and spreading their monthly instalments over a longer period.

“These measures would certainly help those who wish to own a house,” he said.

At the event, Jagdeep also announced that Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and him were contributing RM10,000 each to the building fund of the Gurdwara Sahib Bayan Baru.

Present to receive the cheques were Gurdwara Sahib Bayan Baru president Prof Rabindarjeet Singh and three other committee members.

The four-storey RM3.7mil Gurdwara Sahib Bayan Baru was the fourth on the island and sixth in Penang.