"Build then Sell" concept should be adopted in Malaysia

29/03/2003 Utusan

KUALA LUMPUR March 28 - "Build then Sell" concept should be adopted in Malaysia to end the house buyers' misery as risk factors would be shifted from buyers to the developers and financial institutions, said House Buyers Association (HBA).

President of HBA, Datuk Zainuddin Bachik said house buyers should not carry a large proportion of business risk, which was the current practice, because they were not business proprietors like the developers and financial institutions.

"Presently house buyers carry a large proportion of the business risks involved ... If whatever reason the construction of the houses are disrupted or abandoned, they are the ones who bear the burden," he said when presenting a paper at the House Buyers Forum: Consumer Empowerment.

The forum is held in conjunction with the National Housing and Property Summit here, starting Thursday. The two-day summit entitled "Revitalizing the Property Sector as a Key Engine of Growth."

Zainuddin said the "build then sell" concept would put an end to a host of problems like shoddy workmanship, non-issue of strata titles and the reluctance of developers to pay late delivery penalties.

He said it would compel the developers to built quality homes commensurate with their prices and not resort to cost-cutting measures using sub-standard material and employment of cheap unskilled labour force.

"Presently errant developers are fully aware and promptly exploit the fact that house buyers do not have a way out without incurring heavy losses," he said.

He said the trend in the housing industry in Malaysia was selling houses "off the plan" coupled with glossy and attractive sales brochures as opposed to those in other countries like the United States, Australia and some others, where houses are built first before they are sold to the intending buyers.

He said the current practice had resulted in a trail of havoc suffered by countless house buyers when the developers abandoned the construction of the houses they had purchased.