ABOUT 80 families living at the KTM longhouses in Balakong are facing problems in securing housing loans to buy low-cost flats that have been offered to them.

Serdang MP Datuk Yap Pian Hon said the families failed to secure housing loans as their incomes were too low for financial institutions to approve their applications.

He said about 1,000 families were moved to the longhouses in Taman Balakong Jaya in 1992 as part of the squatter relocation programme to make way for the construction of KTM Bhd’s dual-tracking project.

In 1995, the families were offered low-cost flats in two projects in the area and they had been moving into their new homes in batches over the last few years.


The KTM longhouses in Taman Balakong Jaya (left) occupied by the squatters and the new low-cost flats where they are all supposed to move to.
“However, the 80 families are going to be left behind when the last batch of 200 families move into their flats in April,” said Yap.

The longhouses they now occupy are also scheduled to be torn down in April.

Yap said he had asked the developer offering the low-cost units to ask the Selangor Government to let the affected families rent the flats.

“The state government has flats that are rented out to the hardcore poor, especially squatters, for just RM120 per month,” said Yap.

He said he had also urged the developer to approach financial institutions and discuss with them the possibility of offering loans to some of the families whose income had only slightly missed the required amount.

“It is a pity that these families face problems in buying the low-cost flats after having waited for over 10 years to get them.

“They have been living in the longhouses in Taman Balakong Jaya without proper facilities. Now that shops, offices and proper roads have been built in the township, they cannot afford to buy the flats,” he said.