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.

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