KUALA LUMPUR — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today announced a RM1 million subsidy for the maintenance fees of Bukit Kiara Longhouse residents when they move into their permanent homes.
The allocation will be channelled through Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), which will be responsible for administering the funds and ensuring that they are used to offset monthly costs for the residents.
“We will help by giving a subsidy to cover the housing maintenance costs, at least for three years. The subsidy will be RM1 million,” Anwar said when officiating the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of permanent homes for Bukit Kiara Longhouse residents.
The residents, comprising 98 families, live in wooden terrace homes, giving rise to the name “longhouse”, and have been waiting for permanent housing for 44 years.
The ground-breaking today marks the commencement of the building of new permanent homes, which previously was tied up with the proposed development of Taman Rimba Bukit Kiara.
On April 18, 2023, the Federal Court ruled that the development order granted by DBKL to turn part of the green space into high-rise condominiums as null and void, thus cancelling the project and leaving Taman Rimba Kiara intact as a public park. However, DBKL still had to build permanent housing for the longhouse residents.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh said the ground-breaking ceremony today showed that “public housing and environmental conservation can go hand in hand through an approach that prioritises the public interest and community well-being”.
Meanwhile, Bernama reported Yeoh saying that each longhouse family would receive two housing units each for free, as the residents are from the B40 group.
This had been negotiated from an earlier agreement to give only one unit for free, while the second unit would have to be purchased for RM175,000.
The permanent homes will be built on a 5.76 acre plot, to be completed in three years.
Yeoh said the current longhouse would not be demolished until the new homes were completed to ease the residents’ transition.
Any remaining land would be returned to the government to be gazetted as public space, she added. – June 15, 2026