JOHOR is urging the Local Government Development Ministry to give priority to salvaging “sick” housing projects over reviving abandoned projects in the state.
Johor housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said this would help the government provide better protection for house buyers.
“Sick housing projects are defined as those that have been late for more than 30% of their schedule process or when the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) has lapsed.
“Abandoned projects are those that have not seen any development on site for more than six months or have been listed as abandoned by the ministry under Section 11 of the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 (Act 118).
“Projects are abandoned due to various issues involving land laws, land status or bankrupt developers that require out-of-the-box solutions,” he said when contacted.
Mohd Jafni said that compared to abandoned projects, “sick” projects were almost complete and should be saved to avoid house buyers having to continue to pay monthly instalments.
He said the state government fully supported Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming’s decision to set up a special task force to look into the issues of housing projects in the country.
“The task force will be able to look into the details of every ‘sick’ and abandoned housing project in the country.
“But we hope the minister will prioritise ‘sick’ projects over abandoned ones,” said Mohd Jafni.
He highlighted that there were 17 “sick” housing projects and seven abandoned ones in Johor.
“Johor government would like to offer our help to the ministry in resolving ‘sick’ and abandoned housing schemes here.
“We have also initiated our first move in saving the Residensi Kota Tinggi housing project, which was about 80% complete when the contractors ran into financial issues.
“The developer then hired a new contractor to rescue their project, which will be completed by early this year,” he said, adding that the project started in 2016 and was supposed to be completed in 2019.
On Dec 30 last year, Nga was reported as saying that as of last October, there were more than 300 projects abandoned, a situation that requires immediate attention.
“The task force is formed to look into these issues (abandoned projects) to protect the homebuyers’ interests and to find a win-win formula with the developers to solve this issue and make sure the industry survives,” he said.
