Govt in midst of rescuing 79 abandoned housing projects, minister tells Dewan Rakyat

KUALA LUMPUR: There are currently 79 abandoned private housing projects nationwide, says Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican.

"The projects involve a total of 17,724 units and 11,824 buyers. The gross value of the projects is RM5.57bil," he said when answering a question by Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (BN-Machang) in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (Oct 7).

Of this number, he said 15 projects involving 2,830 units and 2,669 buyers are currently at various stages of revival.

"The progress to revive a further 26 projects involving 3,383 units and 2,806 buyers remains static as the parties are still sorting out legal issues," he added.

He also said efforts are being made to revive the 38 remaining projects involving 11,511 units and 6,319 buyers.

He said success in rescuing these projects is dependent upon the mechanism to revive them being agreed to by the developers, buyers and liquidators.

Of the 79 abandoned projects, he said 65 were due to the developers' poor finances.

Other reasons were projects not being feasible, poor management and marketing, and developers absconding, he added.

"Since 2009 till September this year, the ministry has succeeded in resolving 215 abandoned private housing projects.

"These projects involved 59,090 units and 39,247 buyers," he said.

Reezal Merican also informed the House that the government had spent some RM219mil to help revive low- and medium-cost housing projects.

He also said that he welcomed a suggestion by Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) that a "build and sell" concept is introduced to ensure housing projects are completed before units are offered for sale.

However, he said that at present, only four developers were financially capable of starting "build and sell" projects.