Home ownership dilemma among middle income household: A comparison between employment in public and private sector in Malaysia

Middle income households (MIH) are currently argued as facing dilemma in purchasing their first house in the open market in Malaysia due to arising house prices. MIH working in the public sector were provided by the government with low interest rate housing loans while MIH working in the private sector were mostly left to survive on their own. One of the questions that arise is whether there is a distinct difference between middle income household capability and affordability level to purchase a house in these two employment sectors. The recently launched National Housing Policy (NHP) that was previously embedded in the five-year Malaysia Plan has highlighted and supported the issue of middle income household but the implementation of guidelines is yet to be announced by the government. The main focus of this paper is to distinguish to what extent the inequality of capability and affordability level of middle income household between those employed in private and public sectors. Secondly, the paper aims to determine the role of the government in the housing market closely relating it to NHP. Based on a case study of major cities in Malaysia, mixed method approach was applied to a total of 760 respondents working in public and private sectors that has owned a house. The findings show that there is a small disparity between middle income household in the public and private sectors. Despite a small disparity, there are significant similarities between the capability and affordability level between employments in both sectors. The importance of this study demonstrates there is minimal inequality between employments in public and private sectors. Thus, the problem of affordable housing falls on the income group as a whole which demands more policies and intervention by the government together with the involvement of employers in the private sector to address this issue.