Effectiveness of the Program Perumahan Penjawat Awam Malaysia in Supporting Public Servant Homeownership

Abstract

Despite stable employment, many Malaysian public servants face homeownership challenges due to widening affordability gaps and fragmented housing assistance. Evaluating government housing interventions from the beneficiary perspective is essential to improving policy outcomes and resource allocation. This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the Program Program Perumahan Penjawat Awam Malaysia (PPAM) and its effectiveness in addressing homeownership challenges faced by public servants in Malaysia. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, data were collected from 398 public servants through a structured questionnaire employing a 4-point Likert scale, helping minimize neutral response bias. Simple random sampling was used to ensure representativeness across respondents. The study examined four main program dimensions: awareness, implementation, accessibility, and features. These were analysed to determine how they influence program effectiveness perceptions, with satisfaction as a mediating variable. The analysis also investigated whether these relationships shaped demographic factors such as service grade and age groups. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis showed that satisfaction is the key predictor of program effectiveness, accounting for 98.5% of its variance. Program awareness drove satisfaction and influenced effectiveness entirely through that link rather than directly. In the multi-group analysis, management level officers focused on program features while implementation grade officers placed more value on accessibility and awareness. Younger public servants responded more strongly to awareness initiatives than older colleagues. These results indicate that user experience matters more than technical features of the program. The traditional focus on program dimensions had little direct impact, suggesting a shift toward managing the user experience. The findings also highlight the value of demographic-sensitive strategies instead of one-size-fits-all approaches. For policymakers, this means public housing programs should be designed around users’ needs, with communication tailored to different demographic groups and performance measured by user satisfaction. The simplified model offers a clear framework for reforming public housing programs in Malaysia to improve outcomes and allocate resources more efficiently across public servants.