By D’Drift Team
BINTULU, July 10: High demand for housing has led to soaring house prices in Bintulu, making it the town with the highest house prices in Sarawak, overtaking Kuching.
Samalaju assemblyman Dato Majang Renggi told D’Drift Team that this resulted from rapid development and the influx of outsiders, including foreigners, West Malaysians, Sabahans and non-local Sarawakians.
He estimated that the population of Bintulu is more than 320,000, and 60 per cent are outsiders.
Despite the high demand for housing, Majang, who is also the Infrastructure and Port Development Deputy Minister, said housing development has been slow compared to industrial development, pushing house prices even further up.
According to him, an average intermediate house costs not less than RM500,000 while an intermediate corner lot costs RM800,000 and above. A semi-detached unit, on the other hand, easily fetches RM1 million.
To cut costs, most companies build their own workers’ quarters.
Unsurprisingly, the influx of non-local Sarawakians, especially the non-skilled workers, has given rise to squatters. Despite so, for the last 10 years, there has not been any affordable housing implemented here except for the most recent one at Racangan Perumahan Rakyat Kidurong, which offers 400 to 500 units of affordable houses.
“There is an acute need for housing to prepare for big companies to come in,” said Majang.
He said a large squatter settlement is present in the Tanjong Kidurong area with no less than 2,000 illegal houses, an issue he brought up in every Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting.
“You will not be able to see them from the road. But if you take a boat along the river, you will see them by the riverside. If you go in, you will see many of these squatter houses,” he said.
Majang believed Bintulu has been developing fast, and within 10 years, it may be able to overtake Sibu to be the third-largest town in Sarawak. — DayakDaily
