62 abandoned housing projects revived

10/01/2004 NSTP-PROP

A total of 62 our of the 199 housing projects abandoned since the 1997 economic crises have been revived and completed last year. The Certificate of Fitness for these units, located in various parts of the country have also been issued.

However, eight of the remaining 137 projects will not be revived because they have been found "to have no viability value". The developers abandoned these projects because they faced cashflow problems.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said the purchasers too were no longer interested in the houses. Many of them had paid only minimal amounts, and therefore, it was not practical to revive these projects.

Most of the other abandoned projects are in various stages of completion.

Ong also said that the ministry had directed local authorities to make checks on developers and to ensure that they abide by all the regulations before they were issued with planning approvals for their projects.

The Government, he added, had to be strict with rules concerning housing construction because it did not want to see abandoned projects, as these would only cause hardship to everyone, especially the purchasers.