Housing developers risk losing licence if avoid selling to Bumis

NST 21/04/2002 By V. Shankar Ganesh 

Klang: The Housing and Local Government Ministry can take immediate action including revoking the licences issued to housing developers if they were found trying to avoid selling units to bumiputeras.

Deputy Minister Datuk M. Kayveas said the 30 per cent quota should be adhered to and developers should not try to avoid this by not advertising or advertising only until much later.

He said developers should advertise their projects as soon as possible after they received their advertising licences from the ministry.

Kayveas, who is also the People's Progressive Party president, was speaking after opening a party branch at Taman Meru here today.

He said the ministry would be able to act on the developers if it received complaints from the public.

"If after advertising for some time and the units are still unsold, then maybe the developers can appeal to the State Government to release the units." Kayveas said the ministry would also look if it was possible to make developers put what they claim in their brochures into the sale and purchase agreements.

He said many developers initially claimed that many facilities would be built, but these were not there when the keys were handed over to the buyers.

Kayveas said buyers too should know their rights when buying a house as it was their interest at stake. In Kapar, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali said the State Government realised that in some places, developers could not sell all the Bumiputera units.

"Usually we give them a few more months before releasing the units to non-Bumiputera buyers." He said the State always looked at the areas of development before deciding the exact quota and it had to be reasonable to the developers too.

"If demand is high, we can even make it 90 or 100 per cent Bumiputera," he said. adding that the goal was to help more bumiputeras buy houses in town areas.

He was speaking to the Press after opening the Kapar Umno division delegates meeting here today.