Housing Ministry urged to take charge of funds raised

The House Buyers Association (HBA) wants the Housing and Local Government Ministry to administer trust funds into which all money raised for rehabilitation of abandoned housing projects could go into.

HBA secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said this would ensure that funds allocated to revive a housing project was used only for that project.

"The Ministry has played mediator and matchmaker with some measure of success but this is no longer enough. We would like them to take a more active interest in the resolution of problems faced by buyers of abandoned housing projects.

"They should be more strict in their supervision of not only revived projects but all new housing development. 

"If all aspects are looked into, there should not be any problem with abandoned projects as money is paid to the developer into an account from which they are to withdraw only to pay for the housing project it is intended for."

Yesterday, Chang was speaking to a gathering of buyers of the Sri Impian Condominium in Brickfields, which was abandoned in 1999, who were meeting with Ministry officials. the developer, Li Foong Housing Development, and representatives of the bridging and end-financier, Arab Malaysian Bank.

According to Chang, Arab Malaysian was carrying out a feasibility study to determine whether it was viable to revive the Sri Impian project.

"We asked them for an acceptable level of participation from existing buyers before they could proceed, but they were not able to give a definite answer and needed more time to make that decision.."

The buyers also have to decide whether they want to accept the sub-contractor proposed by Li Foong, LBS Construction, for work to resume.

Other issues discussed at the meeting were late delivery penalties and also penalties for late payment against buyers who had ceased their monthly instalments with Arab Malaysian.

Sri Impian Buyers Association pro-tem chairman Dr R.Jaya Booshane said they were hopeful the project would be revived soon.

"We are happy that officers from the Housing and Local Government Ministry took time to attend our meeting on a Sunday, and so far, they been very cooperative in trying to revive the project.

"We are also glad to hear that Arab Malaysian is willing to revive the project with a new developer, if it is feasible."

Efforts to revive the project went into gear in August last year, after Li Foong began working out a restructuring of the loan facility accorded by Arab Malaysian.

Since then, the parties have met on numerous occasions with the Ministry and also representatives of the buyers.

However to date, nothing has been finalised.