2. Sustainability of Lifestyle & Issues
Lifestyle of people residing in Kuala Lumpur city
does not reflect a good tendency towards
sustainable development. There is a general lack
of awareness in conserving natural resources to
ensure environmental sustainability.
One such examples relates to the increasing
number of motor vehicle purchase year on year,
and the decreasing passenger to private vehicle
ratio, thus leading to excessive consumption of
finite petroleum resources, which inadvertently
leads to other environmental issues such as
global warming.
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3. Factors Affecting Sustainability
Among the contributing factors for the increase in the
number motor vehicles on the road are poor
connectivity issue, weakness in public transportation
system, and low fuel prices. The government’s policy
of heavily subsidizing fuel prices is not helping as it
promotes further consumption of fuel instead of
encouraging responsible consumption based on need
basis.
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4. Easy Money from Property Market =
Rising Cost of Living
Another unsustainable trend among the city folks living in
Kuala Lumpur is the popular demands for attractive private
properties for the sole purpose of investment and capital
gains by a growing population of effluent middle-income
group and high net worth investors, which have caused
property prices to appreciate to excessive levels.
Most of these private properties would change hands in a
matter of months, and prices would soar based on non-value
added speculations by serious investors in the property
market. This trend has led to massive development of
private properties in localities surrounding Kuala Lumpur city
centre, leaving behind limited available land for the
development of affordable homes.
Companies with core business in plantation and fashion
industry have also started to diversify the businesses into
properties development just to ride on the wave of soaring
property prices and demands. While there are real demands
from genuine home buyers for private properties especially
among the younger generation first home owners, affordable
private properties are hard to come by these days as
property prices have skyrocketed beyond their purchasing
means.
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5. Solutions to Sustainability Issues
In order to address the issue of reckless consumption of
finite natural resources such as petroleum, the number of
motor vehicle purchase has to be controlled by increasing
the tax for the purchase of a second vehicle. Roads should
also be designed with a special lane just for carpooling
vehicles to encourage people to carpool with others instead
of driving their own vehicle, thus reducing unnecessary
consumption of fuel as well.
FUEL SUBSIDY
Hybrid vehicles should be introduced and given tax
incentives over petrol-driven engine vehicles to encourage
the adoption of these highly efficient and lower fuel
consumption vehicles in the market.
Public transportation system ought to be improved by
introducing alternative mode of transportations such as
subway or light rail services to connect townships with high
population densities. These public transports should also be
supported by adequate feeder buses to further improve
reach and connectivity to outskirt locations. Having said all
the above, the government’s subsidy on fuel prices should
also be removed so that the prices reflect actual global
market price, thus ensuring prudent consumption of fuel by
road users.
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6. Solutions to Sustainability Issues
As for the unsustainable development in the property market, tax for the purchase of a second
property should be increased to curb speculative buying by property investors. On the other hand, tax
incentives should be awarded to first-time home buyers to enable genuine home owners to afford
their own private property. To prevent further speculation in the property market, the real property gain
tax should be increased for private properties sold within a short timeframe such as 3 years, and
gradually decreased for the subsequent years. The stamp duty charges for the sale of property could
also be increased if necessary to inhibit speculative investment.
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