This article elaborates on how living heritage can be understood and shows that conservation programmes can be a catalyst for establishing sustainable communities in heritage areas. The authors in this article have examined one typical Malay traditional village, Kampung Morten, in the Melaka state of Malaysia. This village will serve as a prism for exploring community perceptions and as a platform for asking a number of questions, including how the conversation programme works, what impacts urbanization has on traditional villages, how do communities survive, and what limitations does the current incentives policy have in meeting community needs. This research has employed a mixed method study, involving various data generation instruments including surveying, interviewing and observation. From this research, it has been found that the impacts of urbanization have altered community lifestyle and values. The authors have tried to illustrate the residents’ perception of the heritage incentives programme, shedding light on their strengths and weaknesses. This article concludes that that there are constraints on the current incentives policy implementation and related issues due to its rapid development and its impact on local livelihoods.