Real estate agents to handle exco village

Luxurious homes: The Selangor state government will leave it up to real estate agents to find tenants for the 10 homes at the exco village.

The services of real estate agents will be sought to find tenants for the 10 luxury homes at the exco village at Section 7 in Shah Alam.

The Selangor state government made the decision after all of its exco members decided not to stay at the 10 luxury houses which are supposed to serve as government quarters for top officers.

The more than RM20mil village, which also has a clubhouse with a swimming pool, was built three years ago amid controversy.

According to state property and management committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad, the exco members feel that engaging real estate agents would be a wise move so that the finding of suitable tenants could be handed professionally.

Iskandar said the exco had not made any decision on the amount for the rental of the houses situated on a hillside of an elite residential area with bungalows and mansions.

“Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim feels that real estate agents are the right people to decide on the rental and to find the suitable tenants,” Iskandar said.

“We will give the agents a free hand to decide on the rentals and tenants,'' he said.

Iskandar said the state government felt that it was unwise to sell the properties since they had become part of the government assets.

He said that with the appreciation on value of the properties in the area, the value of the exco village houses had also appreciated.

“The homes will enable the state to generate income on a monthly basis from their rentals and as well recovering the cost of the project,” Iskandar said.

“We will able to redeem the money spent on the project in the long term as the value would keep appreciating,'' he said.

StarMetro had reported on its front page on Nov 13, 2007, that the exco village has become a deserted place.

It reported that only four of the 10 exco members lived at the five-bedroom houses in the exco village while the rest of the homes were occupied by their family members and relatives.

The report also revealed that a clubhouse with a swimming pool at the village has become a white elephant with hardly anyone using the facilities.

The 10 units of double and triple-storey houses, each measuring 360 sq m, stand on a 2.6ha elevated land.

Former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo was quoted as saying that the houses were built with the intention to promote closer bond among the exco members.

Khir had also claimed that the project was not developed with government money.

By The Star - StarMetro - (Story & photo by Elan Perumal)