Government takes action against errant housing developers

More than 1,000 housing developers and almost 5,000 directors have been blacklisted by the Government for various reasons, including abandoning projects, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said 1,345 developers and 4,659 directors have been blacklisted.

Besides abandoned projects, he said the offences included being responsible for defective projects, non-compliance with decisions of the Housing Tribunal and failing to pay fines issued by the ministry.

Responding to a question from Datuk Halimah Sadique (BN - Tenggara), Kong said from 1990 to Sept 30, 2009, 148 abandoned projects involving 49,913 units and 31,824 buyers were recorded.

“Of this, 12 projects were revived, completed and issued certificates of fitness; 49 are being revived; while the rest are waiting for new developers,” he said.

Under Budget 2010, Kong said the ministry had allocated RM200mil to revive low and low-medium cost houses.

“Of the 87 yet to be revived, 41 are low and medium-cost projects which can be revived,” he said.

Later at the lobby, Kong said the rest of the abandoned projects were difficult to revive, adding that most were high-cost projects.

“Not every project can be revived. The project has to be viable to the new developer, whom we call the white knight.

“If the white knight incurs losses, he won’t take up the project,” he said.

By The Star