SHAH ALAM: There are 139 abandoned housing projects in Selangor, and that is too big a figure for Iskandar Abdul Samad, the state executive councillor in charge of housing, building management and squatters.

Iskandar said he is making it his number one priority to see that these projects are revived.

He is calling on the local councils, state government and federal government to work together in solving this issue, which has caused so much financial misery to the unfortunate house buyers.

Iskandar, the Chempaka state assemblyman, wants the developers to explain why they failed to complete their projects.

"If the problem stems from the state government such as land problem or difficulty in getting approvals, we are ready to expedite it," he said.

But Iskandar pointed out that if the developers face financial problems, it would be hard for the state government to help them.

He said in most cases, the developer was a small company with lack of funds and experience.

"But there are also cases where the developer is a big corporation but the project was abandoned because the company had many other projects to complete," he said.

Iskandar suggested that one solution is to sell the affected housing projects to other developers which will then continue them.

He pointed out that with Selangor having a high density population (especially in the Klang Valley), many developers tried to cash in on housing and this has led to many abandoned projects.