MANY housing scheme recipients expressed happiness with their new homes yesterday and they were further thrilled when His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam took time to tour the area as well as visit some of the houses.

With a land area of 450 hectares (1,112 acres), the Tanah Jambu National Housing Scheme has a total of 1,522 houses including 266 semi-detached units and 1,256 terrace units. The three-bedroom semi-detached unit has a floor area of 147 square metres while the terrace unit, which also has three bedrooms, has a floor area of 148 square metres.

One of the semi-detached house recipients, Abdul Aziz bin Shamsudin, who had the privilege of having His Majesty stopping over to visit his new house, expressed his gratitude to His Majesty and the Government for what he called a much-awaited moment.

Abdul Aziz, a government servant and a father of three, said he made the housing application back in 1993 and was excited when he first heard the news last year that he was one of the recipients.

“I feel so blessed and thankful to Allah the Almighty that I can now have a house of my own. I previously stayed in a government flat and to have this new house means a lot to me and my family,” he added.

Although His Majesty was originally scheduled to visit only four recipients’ houses, more residents extended their warm invitation to the monarch to visit their new houses, which the monarch happily consented to.

According to the Housing Development Department under the Ministry of Development, the National Housing Scheme remains an important agenda and plays a main role in the country’s housing sector, especially in their role of providing housing with a sustainable and affordable concept in line with one of the National Development Plan (NDP)’s objectives to improve the citizens’ quality of living.

To ensure this objective is achievable, under the 10th NDP, the Housing Development Department said they are continuously imple-menting housing programmes nationwide to ensure that the needs of the citizens are fulfilled in line with Vision 2035 that envisions welfare and security for the people. - Borneo Bulletin (9 April 2014)