Since the launch of the government's low-cost Ua Athorn housing project with much fanfare three years ago, it has been found that despite the huge interest, less than half of the housing estates are occupied.

Many who moved in found the estates were too far from their workplaces and so moved out again. Others were unable to keep up with the payments and their units were repossessed by the banks.

Complaints have also arisen about the poor quality of workmanship in the buildings and of property speculators bothering residents with offers to take over their units due to soaring land prices.

The project - one of the caretaker administration's many populist policies - assigned the National Housing Authority (NHA) to build around 600,000 units on 314 housing estates between 2003 and 2008 for underprivileged, low-paid people and civil servants whose overall income was less than Bt22,000 a month.

The construction and facilities costs were subsidised by the government at Bt80,000 per unit.

With each house costing Bt390,000 - paid in monthly instalments of Bt1,500 - the project sparked great interest among low-income people hoping to own their own home.

Around 90,000 applications were submitted for the pilot project at Pathum Thani's Rangsit Klong 3 area, but only 477 families managed to get one of the 21-square metre detached houses.

The Nation recently visited the estate to see how these lucky families were getting on three years after moving in.

However, the head of the estate's cooperative organisation Prathan Thongbai said less than half of the estate was occupied.

"Many said it was too far from their workplaces and that living here resulted in them being out of work and money. So their new homes were consequently seized after they fell behind on the instalments. There are about 30 such cases," he said.

Many had hoped to make a living in the nearby market that was purpose-built. But the market was left half-built and then transferred to the tambon administrative organisation who charged vendors expensive fees, he said.

Since the NHA prohibited setting up stalls on footpaths or in front of the houses, many were forced to work elsewhere, leaving at 4am or 5am each day to commute. They finally gave in and went back to renting a room in town, Prathan said.

He said the houses were built using substandard materials, which is why nearly all of them have cracked roofs. Some have up to 100 cracked roof tiles, he said.

They can call the contractor to fix the problems but after the guarantee term finishes at the end of this month people will have to fix their own problems, he said.

The cooperative also has only 109 members and grew painfully slowly as some members had no jobs, he said.

Another resident, Vanida Kraisripichet, 43, said she tried to sell food at the market in front of the estate but suffered losses due to there being too many vendors. So she turned to the food-by-phone method - cooking by request and delivering food to customers' homes.

Since she did not go out and did not have to pay rental fees for the business, she managed to get by, although she sometimes earned less than Bt100 a day.

Vanida said she was fortunate in having three studious sons whose full scholarships meant she did not have to bear any further expenses.

Many people did not know that if they fell behind in their monthly instalments for three months, their interest rate would go up from 4 per cent to 14 per cent, causing many to lose their houses to the bank, she said, adding that only about half of the houses were occupied.

Vanida said despite the NHA prohibition on house modification, selling, leasing or letting, many had rented their homes to others.

She said each day she was approached by people asking if she wanted to lease the rights to her house for between Bt100,000 and Bt200,000, as the land price had gone up from Bt6,000 per square wah [one square wah equals four square metres] to Bt20,000.

Another resident, Sombat Phrombutr, 54, said she realised after moving in that the house was not worth the money and the instalments seemed to be paying off the interest rather than the loan.

"At first I was happy to buy a house at Bt390,000, but in reality we have to pay instalments forever."

Sombat said she wished the estate had everything it said on paper, including a vocational group for housewives.

"If they didn't mean it, they should never have written about it in the first place. It hurts the residents' feelings," she said.

Meanwhile, company employee Somchai Uthaisri, 33, who reserved a house in Chon Buri's Sri Racha district said he cancelled the reservation after paying eight instalments after finding the house looked like a small, old-style teacher's residence, used poor materials, and was located far from his office.

Many of his neighbours also scrapped their reservations and none got their money back, he said.

NHA deputy governor Pornsak Boonyodom, who will succeed to current NHA governor Chuanpit Chaimuanwong, said more complaints would be filed by residents one to two years from now because 200 to 300 estates would be completed and handed over.

Although the projects will have problems, he and his NHA team were ready to tackle them and assist the residents as best they could, he said.

Pornsak said as the contractors faced rising cost of construction materials due to high oil prices and interest-rate hikes, so the NHA might have to reconsider the sales price of the houses.

Pending the new government's policy, the adjusted price, if necessary, should be no higher than 3 to 5 per cent, he said.

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation