Khalid Samad: Govt plans to introduce new laws on urban renewal

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is planning to introduce new legislation on urban renewal to ensure redevelopment of cities can be done in a more effective and sustainable manner, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

Federal Territories Minister Abdul Khalid Abdul Samad said at the moment, there were no specific laws to facilitate and implement redevelopment of cities, but instead only a guideline on urban regeneration for the government and public sector.

"Therefore, to ensure a more sustainable and effective urban redevelopment, a new piece of legislation towards this will be tabled soon," he told Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) during Question Time.

Fong had asked the ministry to state whether it has any intention of introduce new urban renewal laws to assist redevelopment of old buildings in cities by the private sector, similar to efforts made in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Khalid said the proposed law will address the problem of redevelopment of old buildings in cities due to ownership issues.

"These are among the common problems that are faced all over the world. We will address all these problems in the proposed law that we are going to introduce.

"If we look at the efforts made in other countries such as in Singapore, redevelopment of old buildings that are less than 10 years old will only need 90% agreement (from owners), while in buildings that are more than 10 years old, it only needs 80% agreement.

"But in our country at the moment, you need 100% agreement. But the matter will be addressed, and we will base it on the age of the building and perhaps for buildings that are more than 20 to 30 years, a lower rate can be considered.

"Insya-Allah, all this will be tabled along with the new laws that we are planning to bring to Parliament," he said.