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Need For Paradigm Shift To Realise Build & Sell Concept
Bernama.com  29/9/2004 By Yong Soo Heong

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew, one of Malaysia's successful property developers, says that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's proposal of building houses first and selling them later will be viable only if there is a paradigm shift among housing industry players, especially financial institutions.

He said all concerned must be prepared to change their mindset if this proposal were to be a success, he said.

Lee, noted for his top-end Country Heights, Palace of Golden Horses Hotel and Mines City Resort developments, said banks should consider adopting a more innovative approach to mitigate the risks of housing projects being abandoned by financially deficient and incompetent developers.

Banks and finance companies currently play a pivotal role by providing financing to both developers (bridging loans) and house purchasers (end financing).

"First and foremost, those who want to be housing developers should have the financial means to do so. They should not have to rely on banks to buy the land first to get started and obtain bridging loans as well to complete the construction," Lee said.

He stressed that developers should be people who have the financial muscle to own the land first so that they need not become too financially dependent on banks.

"Second, they (the banks) should adopt what is being practised in the United Kingdom whereby the banks will determine which construction company should build the houses to avoid choosing the wrong contractor," he said.

Under the current practice in Malaysia, contractors are chosen by developers.

Lee said when financiers get to decide on the contractors, they would have to choose those with proven track records so that the projects could proceed without hitches and enable the developers to pay back their bridging loans in the end.

To effect greater transparency in the housing industry, he also suggested that the Ministry of Housing and Local Government make it compulsory for new developers to attend courses just like what Bursa Malaysia had stipulated for company directors of publicly listed companies.

"When we have put all these things in place, we can then embark on the "build & sell" concept and benefit more house buyers," he said.

The Prime Minister had on May 21 this year proposed the adoption of the "build & sell" concept but the response from many developers has been lukewarm.

But of late, a number of developers have backtracked and said the traditional "sell & build" concept can co-exist with the "build & sell" model.

Ghazali Daud, general manager of Syarikat Sentosa Jaya Sdn Bhd (SJSB), Kelantan's largest bumiputera developer, is one of those who believe that the "build & sell" concept is good as it can reduce uncertainties faced by house buyers due to irresponsible developers.

He said it was bad for developers to abdicate their responsibility in completing their housing projects after having collected money from house buyers.

The Prime Minister had said the "build & sell" concept might help address house buyers' dissatisfaction with regard to timely delivery and quality of houses.

Under the present system, a buyer makes a booking and pays 10 percent of the sales price upon signing the sales and purchase (S&P) agreement. He then makes progress payments, normally through a loan arrangement with a bank, in accordance with the stage of completion of the house.

The progress payments are released directly to the Housing Development Account of the project by the bank upon certification by an architect on the stage of the house completion.

While many developers, including those from the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (REDHA), says the current "sell & build" system has worked well so far, others feel that Malaysia must move with the times and prevent the recurrence of abandoned housing projects.

They feel that wrongdoers in the housing industry should face heavier penalties to prevent the government from having to spend hundreds of millions of ringgit to bail out thousands of house-buyers affected by abandoned housing schemes when the money could have gone to other development programmes instead.

At the most, errant developers only get their licences revoked. No further action is taken despite the fact that they had not completed the houses and had collected money from house-buyers whereas such wrong-doing is tantamount to criminal breach of trust or illegal deposit-taking.

Penang chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon is the latest official to have highlighted the relatively light penalty on offenders.

Earlier this week, he said that errant developers should be seriously dealt with, especially those who colluded with architects and engineers to short-change buyers.

Saying that there had been cases where architects reportedly signed for 100 percent completion of a housing project whereas the project was only about 70 percent to 80 percent completed, he said such culprits were usually fined a small amount and, in most cases, such action only led to a temporary suspension of the developer's licence.

"This is not correct because it is a case of criminal breach of trust," Dr Koh said.

Wan Mohd Dzulkifli Wan Daud, chairman of REDHA, Kelantan branch, in supporting the call to punish errant housing development companies recently suggested that swift legal action be taken against company directors whose companies failed to complete housing projects.

The problem of abandoned projects is rather alarming. At the end of January 2004, there were 172 abandoned housing projects nationwide.

According to Lee of Country Heights, part of the blame should go to people with little experience in housing development or "housing developers wannabees".

A developer, he said, has to take many factors into consideration before starting a project like location, landscape, aesthetics, population density, traffic flow and general economy of the area.

"It is not as simple as just finding a piece of land and then start building houses," he said.

-- BERNAMA

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