Housing Minister ordered to form committee to probe Forest City

PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad  has ordered Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (pic)  to form a committee to scrutinise and reassess agreements and deals concerning the sale of residential units in the Forest City project in Johor.

According to Zuraida, the committee would consist of her ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Johor state government and developers.

“That statement (prohibition on the sale of houses to foreigners) will be studied, and we will call the relevant stakeholders for a meeting to discuss the matter,” she told reporters during a press conference following the National Physical Planning Council meeting on Tuesday (Aug 28).

Although the Prime Minister had not issued an official statement regarding the matter, Zuraida said the project developer, Country Garden Pacificview Sdn Bhd, should have gotten the “message” from Dr Mahathir’s statement.

“Many units there have been sold in China, and we will look at the sales mechanism and other relevant issues,” she said.

Zuraida also stressed that the US$100bil (RM410bil) project had no links with the Housing and Local Government Ministry or the National Physical Planning Council.

On Monday (Aug 27), Dr Mahathir said Malaysia will not allow foreigners to buy residential units in the Forest City project in Johor, as the 93-year-old argued that the project was built for foreigners, not Malaysians.

Country Garden has developed just a fraction of the planned reclamation of 20sq km, with Chinese nationals accounting for about 70% of apartment buyers last year.