Think City: Malaysia’s Public Housing at a Tipping Point, Urgent Overhauls Needed

More than half a century ago, Malaysia embarked on an ambitious housing mission to move the urban poor out of squatter settlements and into homes with access to basic necessities such as water, sanitation and proper infrastructure.

The efforts would eventually become one of the country’s development success stories, helping to sharply reduce urban poverty while avoiding the sprawling slums seen in many rapidly urbanising cities around the world.

Think City’s report, “From Roof to Resilience: A Social Assessment of Malaysia’s Public Housing”, suggests that these public housing schemes are now facing a different kind of crisis.

The report points out that some public housing communities are showing signs of deeper social decline, with concentrated poverty, weak governance and deteriorating communal environments gradually creating conditions associated with the “ghettoisation” of urban poverty.

Source: The Edge Malaysia (11 June 2026)