Will buyers hiss or kiss developers?
27/01/2001 MM 

With the Year of the Dragon last year, housebuyers ‘fired’ developers for their shoddy workmanship in building houses.

And whether or not in the Year of the Snake they will hiss more venomous complaints, would depend on whether these developers buck up.

Since the inception of the House Buyers Association (HBA) two years ago, some 10,000 owners of houses in 46 schemes nationwide have filed complaints on the matter.

Association chairman Datuk Zainuddin Bachik said shoddy workmanship - which accounted for 22 per cent of the total complaints filed against developers - arose from concerns over safety after cracks appeared in several houses.

The next largest grouse brought to the association’s attention was on the speed of delivery of homes by developers.

Other gripes included late issuance of Certificates of Fitness (17 per cent), compensation delays (16 per cent), non-adherence to building plans (11 per cent), maintenance and strata titles (four per cent each).

Rapping the developers, Zainuddin was quoted as saying: “It is the developers’ responsibility to assure housebuyers that the homes are safe.

"Most of the assurances given by the developers are usually verbal, unprofessional and unofficial and thus cause a lot of concern for the people."

Selangor flexes building muscles

Meanwhile, more that half of the 12,927 new housing set up nationwide in the last quarter of last year were in Selangor - making it the highest number of units in the country to have been put up during the period.

However, take-up of the new homes, was slower than in the second quarter.

The National Property Information Centre (Napic)’s third-quarter property stock report stated only 52 per cent of the new launches in the state were sold - lower than the 71 per cent achieved in the second quarter.

Stratified units continued to take centrestage in Selangor during the three months under review.

This type of housing is said to have been so popular that they were the only type launched in some districts.

For example, in the Seri Kembangan area, all the three new schemes, totalling 708 units, were condominiums or apartments.

Furthermore, the completion of 1,520 homes during the quarter expanded Selangor’s stock to 549,383 units.

More than half of the 1,520 homes comprised low-cost flats (235 units), as well as condominiums and apartments (546).

Building starts in the state during the three months amounted to 1,419 unit, with stratified units again forming the bulk.

Most of the projects were located in the Petaling district, with three-quarters being strata units and the rest of the two- and three-storey terrace house variety (179 units).

Almost half of the state’s 78,099 homes under construction - 30,332 units - are in the Hulu Langat district.

The rest are in the districts of Petaling (12,609 units), Kuala Selangor (11,240), Sepang (10,655), Klang (7,387), Hulu Selangor (2,468), Gombak (2,403), Kuala Langat (838) and Putrajaya (167).

Tmn Equine taking over KLIH Property developer Taman Equine Sdn Bhd is said to be pumping in RM300 million fresh capital into debt-ridden Kuala Lumpur Industries Holdings Bhd (KLIH) under the latter’s corporate restructuring exercise.

By doing so, Taman Equine is expected to take over KLIH’s listing status through what would effectively be a reverse takeover exercise via the acquisition of the entire issued capital of Taman Equine comprising 1.5 million shares at RM1 each.

The exercise is pending finalisation and agreement with the company’s creditors.

The comprehensive scheme is said include capital reduction of KLIH, debt restructuring and transfer of its listing status.

Listed on the main board of the KLSE, KLIH has been suspended since 1998 and was last traded at 49.5 sen. In June last year, the company was put under special administration of Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Bhd.

My-oh-my, more on IOI

IOI Properties Bhd was in the news again recently, this time saying it would maintain a cautious approach to its core property development activities. Should there be any other way?

The company currently has three ongoing projects in the Puchong-Putrajaya - the 925-acre Bandar Puteri mixed development; its adjoining commercial precinct called IOI-Intellicity and the 420-acre Palm Garden Resort in Putrajaya.

Executive director Lee Yeow Chor said Bandar Puteri would be a significant contributor towards the company’s profit of some RM200mil for the financial year ending June 30, 2000.

Since its launch in last January he said some 2,000 units of mixed residential types are under various stages of construction.

"We believe Puchong, with its proximity to Putrajaya, has emerged as among the strongest growth areas in the Klang Valley. This augurs well for our projects."

Lee said Bandar Puteri’s recent launch of 152 units of double-storey Banyan terrace houses with a built-up of about 2,100sq ft each and priced between RM296,000 and RM306,000 has a take up rate of almost 85 per cent.

"We are encouraged by this fairly good response despite the prevailing cautious sentiment among house buyers," he noted.

Putra Perdana gets NECC’s RM1.2 billion contract

If you want somebody to blame for the disappearance of the Subang airport, blame Putra Perdana.

The construction group is believed to have beat six other consortiums to win the RM1.2 billion contract to build the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (NECC) which will replace our former international airport.

Its achievement is attributed to the company’s partnership with a yet-to-be-revealed international firm with vast experience in the development of exhibition and convention centres.

Putra Perdana is part of a group of companies that are subsidiaries of Putrajaya Perdana Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Kamunting Corp Bhd.

Before the restructuring of the Multi-Purpose Group, Putrajaya Sdn Bhd was a subsidiary of Malaysian Plantations Bhd.

The NECC project, located at what was Terminal One of the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, is owned by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd.