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New hope for stalled housing
projects
12/01/2009 NST By Suganthi Suparmaniam
KUALA LUMPUR: A "special purpose vehicle" will be set up to deal with
abandoned housing projects.
Despite the global economic slowdown, the Housing and Local Government
Ministry hopes to build at least 80,000 new houses this year.
"Some 140 types of businesses like manufacturing, building materials,
architects and financial institutions rely heavily on the housing industry.
"It is up to the ministry to ensure the industry stays vibrant throughout
the year," Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said after handing over keys to
housebuyers of a revived housing project in Bukit Jalil.
"The special purpose organisation will have legal expertise, as well as
expertise in technical issues, land management and other aspects of reviving
abandoned projects," Ong added.
It will also have financial facilities, like being able to provide soft
loans, when developers run into trouble, he said.
The housebuyers of the Jalil Sutera project, who received their keys
yesterday, had worked with the developer for three years to get it
completed.
Insurance agent Goh Eng Choo said when she found out that the project had
been abandoned in 2005, she and other buyers set up a committee to protect
their purchases.
"I'm happy our team's hard work has paid off," she said.
There are 193 houses in the project, and the remaining 62 housebuyers have
been promised their homes by August.
Ong said out of 270 abandoned projects, 126 have been revived by the
original or other developers, and 115 have the potential to be revived |
