Selangor to implement build-then-sell concept

SELANGOR aims to take the lead in the “build-and-then-sell” concept for housing projects to reduce the incidence of house buyers being cheated by unscrupulous developers.

“I'm trying to work with the PKNS (Selangor Development Corporation) on one or two projects first. We will also raise this issue with the Housing and Local Government Ministry and Parliament,” said Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim when speaking at the opening of Taman Medan assemblyman Haniza Talha's service centre in Taman Medan Pejasa, Petaling Jaya.

Khalid: In most developed countries, there is no such thing as paying for the house before it is built.

“In most developed countries, there is no such thing as paying for the house before it is built. For example, in Australia, you have the right to sell only when the project is completed.

“But in Malaysia, you can sell your housing project even before you complete it.”

It was reported earlier that there were 141 abandoned projects in the state, 108 of them housing projects.

Khalid said such projects had been abandoned since six years ago and exceeded more than RM1 billion in value.

“We don’t want this to be done immediately, but it has to be done in stages so that in future, there will be a lot more people who will build first before selling.

“The state and local governments are now facing a lot of problems as people are demanding to know why we allow buildings or houses to be built in a shoddy manner.”

He said the state government would consider giving incentives to developers who wanted to implement the concept, but cautioned that pricing was an important issue that needed to be thrashed out with the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

On resolving the problem of the present abandoned projects, Khalid said that they would search for the runaway developers and talk to the distressed house or flat buyers as well as bank representatives, so that they could work towards completing the projects.

He also addressed the issue of companies which abandoned previous projects and come up with new ones under a new company.

“The state government won't blacklist the company, but we will blacklist the directors and owners of the companies,” said Khalid.

“We are keeping track of their names based on their IC numbers (just like Bank Negara's way of assessing credit risks) and building a database based on that information.”

By The Star (by Jade Chan)