Most projects can be rescued, says ministry
The Star 28/11/2003 By Stephen Then

MIRI: The majority of abandoned housing projects in the country can be successfully rescued and revived and their reconstruction completed in about one year.

The Housing and Local Government Ministry has received feedback from Syarikat Perumahan Negara (SPN) – the body assigned the task of helping rescue these projects – that most of the abandoned projects can be successfully rehabilitated.

There are nearly 30,000 house buyers affected by this problem.

Deputy Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said that if all the parties involved in reviving these projects were to play their role fully and effectively, there should be no problem completing these abandoned units within 12 months or so from now.

“From the reports compiled by the SPN, most of the affected houses were already more than 50% constructed before they were abandoned due mostly to financial problems faced by the developers,” he said when interviewed yesterday.

“The SPN had taken over about 200 of these abandoned projects (in peninsular Malaysia) from developers who could not afford to revive these projects on their own.

“Out of these 200 projects, most of them are still in good condition and can be rebuilt. However, for those units suffering structural defects due to long periods of neglect, SPN would recommend to the developers concerned that these units be demolished and replaced with a completely new structure,” he said.

Chin, who is Miri MP, said the structural engineers hired by SPN would determine whether the abandoned units were safe enough for rehabilitation.

These engineers would conduct thorough evaluation of every abandoned unit before making recommendations on their revival or demolition, he stressed.

Asked how many of these abandoned units were in very bad shape, Chin said that based on current reports, most were still in relatively good condition.

“In fact, there are some abandoned units that are already about 80% completed. There are some private developers who are willing to revive their own abandoned projects because they are already in the final stages of completion,” he said.

Chin, however, pointed out that house buyers must still fulfil all the terms and conditions of the sale and purchase agreement with the developers once their abandoned units were successfully rescued.

A housing project is considered abandoned if its construction has been stopped for more than six months.

Previous statistics showed that the abandoned projects were worth some RM500mil.

Selangor has the most number of abandoned projects, followed by Federal Territory and Johor.