KUALA LUMPUR, Thurs. - More Malaysians will be eligible to buy low-cost houses under a series of wide-ranging measures that have been approved by the Cabinet to mop up the overhang involving such property.

And those who stand to gain from the new guidelines include single parents, the disabled and singles with many dependants. Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said the measures were approved by the Cabinet yesterday and the National Housing Council will meet within two weeks to set the guidelines for those who are eligible to buy the houses.

"We also want to get feedback from the State governments to fine-tune the rulings. "We hope to sort out everything within the next three months," Ong told a Press conference after chairing his ministry's post-Cabinet meeting today.

According to statistics from the Women Development Centre of Malaysia, there are an estimated 600,000 single mothers in the country, 85 per cent of whom are widows. Eighty per cent of them earn less than RM1,000 a month and are supporting more than 250,000 non-working and school-going children.

Ong denied recent media reports that there was a glut of low-cost houses in the country, especially in Selangor where there were reportedly only 50,000 buyers for the 225,000 low-cost houses in the State.

He said based on the latest statistics from the Selangor Housing and Real Estate Board, there were only 13,752 unsold low-cost houses, either completed or under construction.

The Finance Ministry's National Property Information Centre (Napic) also recorded 9,813 units of unsold low-cost houses nationwide at the end of last year, 2,423 of which are in Selangor. All developers who failed to sell their low-cost houses after nine months must report the matter to Napic.

Ong announced that from now on, unsuccessful applicants for low-cost houses could forward their appeals and complaints to the ministry at Jabatan Perumahan Negara, Tingkat 5, Blok K Pusat Bandar Damansara, 50782 Kuala Lumpur.

If the complainant had a valid case, he said the ministry would then ask  the State government for an explanation. Other measures, announced by Ong, are:
* holding state-level low-cost housing expos which includes participation from financial institutions and lawyers;
* reviewing the application forms for low-cost houses to make them simple and transparent and to use a standard form for all states;
* considering a rent-to-buy scheme which allows tenants of such property to own the house after a certain period;
* to fine-tune the open registration system for low-cost houses to make it more efficient and transparent;
* getting state agencies like the respective economic development corporations to buy unsold low-cost houses and then rent them out; and
* getting the State governments to help buyers get end-financing.
Under the ministry's housing loan scheme, applicants can enjoy credit facility of up to RM20,000, of which the first RM10,000 is interest-free while the balance is charged at four per cent per annum.