The provision of shelter is a fundamental human right as implied in the Maqasid al-Shari'ah, hence Islamic finance should provide avenues to facilitate society in buying affordable homes. This challenge covers the funding aspect of affordable housing development albeit other critical challenges associated such as high land cost, compliance and construction cost, and developers' profit margin. The issue is that market forces dictate property prices that many cannot afford; hence lack of affordable housing is a serious issue being faced by major cities around the globe, including Malaysia. As the public resort to government assistance for policy change to support more affordable housing development, governments, have less option to do so due to fiscal constraints. Worse still, private developers will not build houses that are not profitable to them. To increase the supply of affordable housing, one possible solution is to seek investments from institutional investors with deep pockets to resolve this conundrum. This study aims to investigate factors that motivate institutional investors to invest in affordable housing projects in Malaysia. It consists of two main components, firstly product development, and secondly, marketing research ...

The purpose of this study is to explore potential fund-raising option that can be developed to attract investment in affordable housing initiatives in Malaysia. In doing so, the study undertakes to discuss the viability of the property trust fund structure as an investment vehicle. The study uses a qualitative design that involves the use of semi-structured questionnaires as a data collection strategy. A total number of ten experts were selected for the interview using critical case sampling scheme based on the purposive sampling strategy. The study discovers that a dynamic fund structure - one that allows for the fund to evolve with changing circumstances and needs - can be adopted. This fund structure comprises a fund that can be initially established as a closed-ended fund. Then, with sufficient track record, the fund can be transformed into a public real estate investment trust, with the prospect of tapping into capital market via issuance of sukuk in the future. The fund can also adopt mezzanine structure of funding, which may reduce investors' risks with minimal government intervention.

This study attempts to investigate the issues that impede the provision of affordable housing for Malaysian population. These issues need to be identified and addressed, as they hinder potential private investments in affordable housing projects. In order to achieve this aim, a qualitative method was adopted, in the form of interviews with several developers and institutional investors. Seven areas were recognised to be the sources of major problems with affordable housing in Malaysia namely, the lax policy; poor urban design and planning; supply and demand; property overhang, financing, and price; lacking innovation and research and development; escalating development costs; as well as obsolete quota and subsidy programmes. These findings may provide invaluable insight for policymakers in identifying and resolving the issues of affordable housing, which may then create potential avenue for private investment to alleviate the issue of shortage of affordable housing.