Blacklisted housing developers face potential travel ban, Parliament told

KUALA LUMPUR: Developers of abandoned housing projects may be barred from leaving the country in the near future, says Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu.

The Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister said this was among the punitive measures against errant housing developers following the proposed amendment to housing laws.

"Among the amendments to be implemented is placing a travel restriction on the housing developers and board of directors who have been blacklisted," she said when answering a question raised by Datuk Seri Dr Wee Jeck Seng (BN-Tanjung Piai) in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Oct 15).

Besides this, Aiman said that the details of the housing developer and the affected project, which had been abandoned or ran into trouble, would be displayed in the National Housing Data Banking System (Teduh).

"This will become a reference for stakeholders such as purchasers and financing banks," she added.

As of Sept 30 this year, Aiman informed the House that there were 113 abandoned private housing nationwide.

She said the projects involved a total of 30,361 units and 15,952 purchasers.

Aiman noted that the special task force on abandoned and troubled private housing projects had revived a total of 14 abandoned private housing projects as of Sept 30 this year.

"These projects involved 1,900 units with an estimated value of RM574.79mil," she added.

On current action to better protect home purchasers, Aiman said that the Housing and Local Government Minister is empowered to declare a private housing project as abandoned if it fails to be completed within a stipulated time.

"Once declared as abandoned, the ministry will take proactive action to blacklist the developer and the board of directors involved with the project," she added.

She said that the errant developer would be prevented from applying for a new developers' licence.

Besides this, she said that the account of the errant developer, under the housing development authority, would also be frozen.