On January 17, 2009, NST in their property segment published at page 4 the cover story of a total of 202 HBA's list of abandoned,stalled and revived projects in alphabetical chronological order.
It is stated at paragraph 4 that \" HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said just like the law governing Danaharta, the National House Buyers' Association which in 2007 proposed a special purpose vehicle (SPV), where the SPV could also come under a special legislation, which he suggested be named the DanaProjek Terbenkalai Act.\"
\" The agency we suggested is solely intended for taking over all abandoned housing prjects and subsequently to revive them with the injection of liquidity,\" said Chang.
\" Its objectives can be achieved through the acquisition, management, financing and disposition of assets and liabilities and the projects.\"
According to the same quoted author, \"this (SPV) should be government-funded and comprehensive to cover these areas :-
* All assets in the project, including the land to be vested in the SPV;
* Engagement of special project managers and independent consultants to administer and manage the project until
completion;
* The agency may transfer titles to housebuyers;
* Land authorities are authorised to register transfers of the titles;
* Interest in progressive installments will stop until the project is revived and completed;
* Empowered to carry out investigations including perusing the records, books and accounts of the developer;
* Public Prosecutor may prosecute the developer for offences committed under the existing laws;
* Directors or officers of the developer can be penalised;
* Buyers are entitled to seek compensation from the developer.\"
The time frame to bring this SPV to work in estimated to be in five years.
Accordingly, the same article also listed out the statistics for counting the losses.
\" Housing and Local Government minister (then) Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan has been quoted as saying that in almost
two decades :-
* 2.78 million houses have been built;
* 87,725 units (or 30 percent) were later abandoned;
* 35,262 units (or 40 percent) have been revived and delivered;
* 15,155 units (or 17 percent) are in the process of being redeveloped; and
* 37,708 units (or 42 percent) are still listed as abandoned.\"
My contention is that looking at the above, whether five years can resolved the numbers by large is still to be seen. There are suggestions that the government have to always keep a close check on all these projects.
However, there is no way to prevent advertisements and publicity from making headway to the consumers' pocket
when the backyard of this huge problem is still unresolved.
Whatever proposals for legislations to come, the cost and delay of completing these projects should not be passed to the purchasers. Banks and financial insitutions should protect the interests and financial position
of its customers since the loans taken are for long term.
Will there be any proposal for government loan to the public next?
Only time will tell.
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