Land Premium vs Urban Regeneration

Urban regeneration is a lengthy process as it involves various stakeholders with different needs and priorities. In an old neighbourhood area, the first generation of settlers might be sentimental and emotionally related to the place for which they have stayed, developed and inculcated the sense of belonging over the years. It is difficult to convince this group of people to leave or distance themselves from their neighbourhood. The second generation might be there since born and going through the childhood and developmental growth in their life phase. Hence, with historical attachment to their birth place, might not be that easy to be convinced to move away. The newcomers are easier lot because they come with new thinking of revitalise the old neighbourhood. This group is the prime mover to push ahead the plan for urban regeneration. The neighbourhood will have imbalance state of regeneration due to different need and agenda of the above mentioned groups. As a result, the whole neighbourhood area will be filled with different phase of development. For example, uneven building height, modern building sandwiched by buildings with deteriorated condition, upgrading of roads and infrastructure in piece meal basis, the presence of vacant and idle land in the centre of the neighbourhood area. This is common scene in the Old Town of Petaling Jaya, the earliest settlement of the City since its inception 60 years ago. One of the reason contributing to this phenomenon is the capability of settlers to pay extra premium for extending their land lease. Lease of the land owned by the settlers is expired soon and need renewal. Without longer lease period, they feel insecure to invest renovating their house. Apart from that, it is also difficult for the owners to secure loan from financial institutions to fund the rebuilding of their dilapidated house. Hence, many of these houses have left with its original condition without any major refurbishment. For the owners to renew the lease, each individual land owner is expected to folk out at least RM 60,000 or more. It is definitely a burden for the land owners especially the first and second generation of settlers who have retired from work. The recent policy introduced by the Selangor State Government on paying only RM 1,000for renewing the lease, is thus welcomed by many. It is anticipated that nearly 100,000 land owners will be benefited from this policy. The land owners will only need to pay RM 1,000 upon approval of the lease extension provided that the family keep the land. If the land owners decided to sell the land later, they have to pay up the premium in full sum or entitled to a 30% discount if payment is made within 3 months of the approval date. Although it is understood that some question about people need to folk out higher amount when making a sale later, this However should not become an excuse for not supporting this policy of providing another alternative. People with no financial capability of securing loan in rebuilding their house can do so now. This, will help in rehabilitating the old neighbourhood with modern building and better infrastructure. It indicates that land premium and urban regeneration is closely related as it will determine whether the owners will be able to support the plan or not.