The Housing Developers Association yesterday appealed to the state to relax its conditions and levies imposed on developers to avoid problems afflicting buyers such as in the case of the Majestic Heights project.

Its Penang branch chairman Datuk Ong Gim Huat said had the government agencies heeded the HDA's appeal earlier, the problem might not have happened.

"It is unfortunate that action is taken only when the anticipated problem has taken place," he said in a statement.

Responding to The Star's report yesterday which quoted Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon as saying that the developer would be allowed to postpone building physical structures such as roads until all its phases were completed, Ong said:

"The HDA is the first to sympathise with the Majestic Heights buyers and fully supports any help given them by the state.

"However, we would like to point out that the easing of conditions only at this juncture when the developer is facing extreme difficulty would not have been necessary if the HDA's appeals over the years had been heeded."

Ong said among the examples of increased infrastructure requirements imposed on developers were the:

* LUDICROUSLY high road mapping charges not required before;

* ROAD standards on highways now imposed on local domestic roads;

* UPGRADING and building of new bridges which should be the responsibility of the state government and local authorities;

* OPENING of new access roads which do not serve the project;

* LAYING of water mains outside the project, and;

* BUILDING of schools, markets and hawker centres.

Ong said other punitive contributions and levies imposed on developers included drainage and tree-planting contributions as well as an increase in car-parking contributions from RM750 to RM15,000 per bay.

He urged the state government to reconsider their problems sympathetically so that more affordable housing could be provided to the public.

On Monday, The Star reported that Majestic Height's Phase 1 purchasers had filed a notice two weeks ago through their lawyers to oppose the winding-up petition filed by creditors against the developer of of Majestic Heights at the High Court here.