12/01/2009 The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Housing and Local Government Ministry hopes developers will be able to deliver at least 80,000 units of residential homes this year.

Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said since the 1990s, developers had been building an average of 100,000 homes a year.

New homeowner: Ong (second from left) handing over the house keys to Taman Sutera Jalil houseowner Goh Eng Choo (centre) on Sunday. With him are (from left) Ho Hup Construction Company Bhd COO Woo Thin Choy, chairman Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir and Ho Hup director Datuk Vincent Lye.

“However, since there might be an economic slowdown this year, I hope they can achieve at least 80% of their annual average,” he told reporters yesterday after a handing over ceremony of house keys at Taman Jalil Sutera yesterday.

Ong handed keys to some 31 house owners of Phase Four of the residential project.

The entire housing project comprising of 193 units was to have been completed in 2005, but the completion for 93 units was delayed.

The remaining 62 units will be delivered by August.

Ong said since the 1990s, about 2.78 million houses had been built throughout the country where about 87,725 units were later abandoned.

“But about 35,262 units managed to be revived and delivered,” he said.

Another 15,155 units were in the process of being redeveloped, while the remaining 37,308 units were still listed under abandoned housing projects.

“But these 37,000 odd units are the old units before the Housing Development Act was amended recently, and there is a lot of legal complications surrounding them,” he said.

“Developers are now held much more accountable than before.”

He added the Ministry was looking at setting up a special purpose vehicle to be put in place to look into reviving all abandoned housing projects.