261 studies conducted also discover that the process of housing planning in the existing mechanisms emphasized mostly on the achievement of the objective of meeting housing needs. These findings will be summarized in this section by presenting the main weaknesses of each housing planning activity and the achievement of the planning mechanisms toward realising the objectives of housing planning.
8.2.1
The Forecasting of Future Housing Requirement The implementation of the housing forecasting activity in both structure and
local plans in the study area is basically incomprehensive and ineffective. The results of the content analysis carried out shows that out of the 7 SPs and 7 LPs prepared in the study area, only two plans, i.e. MPJB, Mukim Plentong and Pasir Gudang SP and Johor Bahru District LP can be said to have conducted the activity comprehensively. In these plans, the future housing requirement was not only calculated in the form of broad housing needs (total housing quantity) but also in the form of category and price range of future housing demands. The plans have utilised fully the data of households’ effective demand resulting from the demographic study in the plans’ preparation. The failure to apply an ‘integrated’ or at least ‘common’ forecasting technique and incorporate all figures of the housing aspects, household growth and household effective demand are the main causes of the incomprehensiveness of housing forecasts. The incomprehensiveness of the activity is also contributed by the failure to produce the forecast in both time-frames, namely for the whole planning period and by phases. There are 5 LPs which produce the housing forecast only in the form of the whole planning period without breaking it down into certain timeframes. The above findings are in line with the perceptions of the town planners (in the questionnaire survey), where the majority of them agreed that both the structure and local plans in the study area are effective only in forecasting future housing needs but failed (ineffective) to forecast future housing demands. The ineffectiveness