Low-Cost Housing in Sabah, Malaysia: A Regression Analysis

Abstract

Low-cost housing plays a vital role in the development process especially in providing accommodation to those who are less fortunate and the lower income group. This effort is also a step in overcoming the squatter problem which could cripple the competitive drive of the local community especially in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. This article attempts to look into the influencing factors to low-cost housing in Sabah namely the government's budget (allocation) for low cost housing projects and Sabah's total population. At the same time, this study will attempt to show the implication from the development and economic crises which occurred during period 1971 to 2000 towards the provision of low cost houses in Sabah. Empirical analyses were conducted using the multiple linear regression method, stepwise and also the dummy variable approach in demonstrating the link. The empirical result shows that the government's budget for low-cost housing is the main contributor to the provision of low-cost housing in Sabah. The empirical decision also suggests that economic growth namely Gross Domestic Product (GDP) did not provide a significant effect to the low-cost housing in Sabah. However, almost all major crises that have beset upon Malaysia's economy caused a significant and consistent effect to the low-cost housing in Sabah especially the financial crisis which occurred in mid 1997.

Critical success factors for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing in Malaysia

“…Sabah is chosen as one of the less developed states in Malaysia. Sabah somewhat has a large number of housing projects in East Malaysia out of a growing number of mortgage transactions, and in wider prime areas (Mulok and Kogid, 2008).…”

Consumer behaviour of Islamic home financing

“…Sabah is chosen, as it has a bright potential for current and future housing and property market in East Malaysia. Essentially, Sabah relatively has a large number of housing projects compared with Sarawak (Mulok and Kogid, 2008). It is also reported that the national house price index for Sabah is the highest in Malaysia, rising to 217.2 in 2010 from 132.5 in 2006, an increase of 63.9 per cent over four years (New Sabah Times, 2011).…”

Tourism and Economic Growth Linkages in Malaysia

“…A general view through graphical displays, as shown in FIGURE 1, both economic growth (real GDP) and tourist arrival tend to increase over time with slightly changes occurring within the years 1997-1998and 2007-2008for real GDP, and in 1998-2002 for the tourist arrival. Changes in real GDP are mainly due to the Asian financial crisis that occurred in the mid 1997 and the global financial crisis in 2008.…”

“…Changes in real GDP are mainly due to the Asian financial crisis that occurred in the mid 1997 and the global financial crisis in 2008. Changes in the tourist arrival, on the other hand, are mainly due to the Asian financial crisis in the mid 1997 and world electronics demand crisis as well as the September 11 incident in USA in 2001 (Mulok & Kogid 2008).…”