This book documents the ongoing Malaysian housing story, 15 years after the publication of the first edition, Housing the Nation: A Definitive Study, which commemorated Cagamas Berhad’s 10th anniversary. With over 25 writers, it was the single, most comprehensive body of scholarship on housing ever assembled. This second edition, entitled Housing the Nation: Policies, Issues and Prospects, marks Cagamas’ Silver Jubilee. It brings together 34 authors from the Government, private sector, academia and civil society who seek to capture the developments to the present and to think ahead to the future. The chapters reflect their personal interests and perspectives on common matters of concern. The four objectives of this book are represented by its four parts. Part I highlights Cagamas’ role in promoting homeownership, the secondary mortgage market and Islamic finance in Malaysia. These contribute to a greater understanding of the functions of this organisation and its impressive contributions to each of these three areas. Part II begins with an overview chapter on how well housing needs have been met and aspirations fulfilled, and is followed by cross-cutting chapters on housing policies and institutions, housing finance and housing law and administration.

Successful housing policy requires the cooperation and integration of interests of multiple stakeholders. These chapters are therefore examined from different perspectives, that of government officials, private developers, housebuyers, finance executives and scholars. The insights shared, both similar and dissimilar, are interesting and extremely important for those seeking to understand Malaysian housing policy and law. Part III is devoted to more focused subject matter relating to housing. Land is fundamental to housing, and the laws surrounding it, in all their complexity, are discussed. This is followed by a chapter devoted to the current issue of the markets for luxury and affordable housing and another on the problems of and prospects for public housing. Government efforts to promote affordable housing via the 1Malaysia People’s Housing programme (Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia or PR1MA) will be of special interest, while six states have been selected as case studies for public housing.

One of the most intensely debated topics in housing is then considered, that of the Build-Then-Sell (BTS) system versus the current Sell-ThenBuild (STB). This is a subject that is covered in a number of other chapters but is more fully developed here. Rounding up this part are contributions on the need to create vibrant and thriving communities, namely, the trend towards guarded and gated communities as a means of preventing crime as well as a look at the issue of community development.