The Need for Sustainability Improvements in Residential Building Stock: A Case of Klang Valley, Malaysia

Energy consumption in residential buildings is increasing and continues to escalate. As a developing country, Malaysia faced rapid urbanization due to population growth and heavy migration from rural areas to cities which raised the need for economic development, resulting in rising demand more than ever. Guidelines for conserving energy in buildings have become more critical now, encouraging the growth of sustainability concerns in Malaysia. However, the urgency has been given to commercial, governmental and industrial buildings, making the push towards the residential sector less noticeable despite a large number of the housing typology. This paper aims to investigate the course of Malaysia’s sustainability agenda towards achieving sustainable development, and further analyse the response to the uptake at the local level. To achieve that, a systematic review of existing national policy and masterplan produced by the government, state and local councils towards decarbonization efforts in the building sector was conducted. Following that, a thematic synthesis was carried out to further evaluate low carbon initiatives on the local level, in particular among ten (10) local authorities committed to the Low Carbon City Framework (LCCF). In short, the current policy of sustainability in the residential building remains limited with only four (4) local authorities highlighting improvement strategies despite residential becoming the largest building typology in the country. Hence, there is a need for sustainability improvements among residential building stock, in which an extensive policy embracing possible strategies for achieving energy efficiency should be devised