30 June

Yangon City requires accommodation for local residents especially apartments on a yearly basis as growing number of people migrate from rural to urban area seeking out modern works over traditional back breaking agriculture works. Hence, Yangon Region government is making an all out efforts toward the emergence of some 100,000 apartments per year in order to meet the growing demand for accommodation in the city.

Accommodation would become the top issue for people in Yangon during the coming decade. As more and more people migrate to urban areas Yangon will face higher demand for accommodation. Yangon Region government plan to put up lands on which investors from the international community will be invited to build low-cost apartments said Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein.

At the moment, Kyan Sit Min housing project is under construction in Hlinethaya Township and Phase-1 of the project is 86 per cent completed according to Ministry of Construction Department of Urban and Housing Development. Kyan Sit Min Housing project will provide more than 2,000 low-cost apartments. Price of the apartments will be affordable for a moderate-income family.

The project site is on 50 acres of land in Hlinethaya Township and apartment buildings constructed will be five-storey buildings with either four, six or twelve apartments per storey making available a total of 2,372 apartments.

86 per cent completed Project Phase-1 was inaugurated on 10 May 2019 and was attended by Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein and officials.

Department of Urban and Housing Development stated that construction cost of Kyan Sit Min housing project totals Ks 36,110.742 million. Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein said the land value will be reduced to zero to bring down the price of the apartment.

The low-cost apartments of Ministry of Construction Department of Urban and Housing Development will be sold to the people in a long-term instalment system arranged by Construction, Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank.

Now, people can buy 28 apartments from Shwelinpan housing project phase-2 and 174 apartments from Shwelinpan housing project phase-3 in Hlinethaya Township, 639 apartments from Yuzana housing project and 243 apartments from Kanaung housing project in Dagon Myothit (Seikkan) Township by having a saving account in CHID Bank.

There are now about 25,000 saving accounts opened by the people in CHID Bank. Eligible buyers among the saving account holders are also entitled to long term loan from CHID Bank with a low interest rate of 8.5 per cent. The seed money for this long term loan was provided to CHID Bank by ODA loan of Japan.
There were some difficulties when the low-cost housing projects were started and there still were more to overcome but enough interest had been raised resulting in not only local companies but international companies showing interest in the projects and were holding talks with Yangon Region Government.

Plans are underway to build low and affordable-cost housings in Hlinethaya, Shwepyitha, Dagon Myothit (Seikkan) and Dagon Myothit (East) townships.

The target price of the low and affordable-cost housings were to be less than K 10 million to enable the grass root people to afford it. Yangon Region government is also searching for suitable plots of lands for the low and affordable-cost housings and as mentioned by the Chief Minister, it will be zero cost lands.

With a minimum down payment and an affordable monthly payment, people will have an apartment which will be completely owned after 15 years instalment payment.
Yangon Region Government estimates that public servants, private company personnel as well as squatters will need more than 300,000 apartments in Yangon and the government has been seeking out ways to meet this demand.

Japan agreed to disburse 150 billion yen loan for the first time in order to implement the housing projects. The loan will be disbursed via CHID Bank of Ministry of Construction.
Yangon population is now more than five million and by 2040 it is expected to reach 10 million. That is why plans were adopted to meet the accommodation requirement of the rising population. And only through this way most of the people’s dream of own-home will become a reality.

If this was not met, Yangon will become an untenable city with crimes, social and health problems tarnishing the image of the city.

As a commercial hub of the nation, local and foreign investments create opportunities for youth attracting more people to the city. It is a certainty that more and more youth will come to Yangon month by month and year by year to obtain employment opportunities as well as to acquire education and knowledge. 90 per cent of labourers working in Hlinethaya Township came from all corner of the country and about 50 per cent of them came from Ayeyawady Region alone.

Kyan Sit Min housing project with more than 2,000 low and affordable-cost apartments once completed will be a dream-come-true for some of the increasing population of Yangon. Translated by Than Tun Aung