Revival of housing projects gives hope to buyers

The Star 13/03/2001 By V.K. Chin

HOUSE buyers whose schemes have been abandoned can look forward to these projects being revived by the National Housing Corporation which has been put in charge of dealing with this problem.

This is a more serious issue than many people might have realised and based on reports, there are supposed to be some 500 such abandoned projects worth about RM15bil.

For the sake of the purchasers and the economy, it is important that as many of these schemes be revived as possible because a lot of money is being tied up by these uncompleted jobs.

The innocent victims will continue to suffer both financially and mentally especially those who had invested huge sums of money in the hope of having their own homes.

Many of them too had taken out housing loans from financial institutions and they will have to service the borrowings even though the developers are unable to complete the units.

Those who are living in rented premises while waiting for the completion of their new homes are the ones who suffer the most because they have to pay both the rental as well as their loans.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for the agency to revive all the abandoned projects. So far, it has identified 47 projects for rehabilitation and this alone is estimated to cost RM1.3bil to implement.

Several factors will have to be considered before a project can be restarted. One strong argument is that the houses have already reached an advanced stage of completion.

In such a case, it will not require too much effort to continue construction of the units so that the buyers could move in with minimum delay. The other reason is that the buyers are still keen on the venture and prepare to meet any new financial commitments for this purpose.

But in between, a lot of groundwork will need to be done. Construction cannot start as all the legal hurdles must be cleared first before the workers can move in.

While this may take time, any move to get construction going again will be looked forward to by the purchasers.

Otherwise, they will stand to lose tens of thousands of ringgit which they have already spent in anticipation of owning a house. Many have been financially crippled and will have to repay their loans for many years to come.

To be fair, only a few small developers are involved in the non-completion of the housing projects. The established ones have the financial resources to see things through.

Prospective buyers should therefore exercise some caution before investing in any new housing ventures. A check on the background of the developers is essential if the buyers are not to be caught should the projects be abandoned, due mostly to financial reasons.

This will not happen if the developers have a good record. The most that the buyers will complain about is shoddy workmanship but at least they will have the satisfaction of getting the houses.