Construction entrepreneurs have responded to comments made by Myanmar’s Vice President Dr Sai Mauk Kham by telling Mizzima that the price of land is the major obstacle to the implementation of low cost housing projects in Myanmar’s commercial hubs.
During an extended cabinet meeting held on August 21, Dr Sai Mauk Kham said that the country required a public housing scheme to tackle the squatter camps that are becoming commonplace across the country.
He said that such a scheme needed to be implemented not only in Yangon and Mandalay but across cities such as Mawlamyaing, Monywa, Magway, Pathein, Sittway and Taunggyi.
Speaking to Mizzima on August 22, U Thaung Htike Min, director of Thukha Yadanar Construction, developers of the Dagon City luxury housing project in Yangon, said the price of land was a major obstacle to the building of affordable housing.
“To give people on a lower income the chance to own their home we must first decrease the price of land,” said U Thaung Htike Min.
“Every ministry is holding on to too much unused land, so what needed is a demonstration of the will to implement such a scheme,” he said.
