Downsize housing projects to reduce risk of having too many

25/05/2004 The Star By  RON PICKERING,Kuala Lumpur.(via e-mail)

ALONG with many other Malaysians, I applaud Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's call for developers to adopt the build-and-sell model.

Housebuyers have had to put up with slow deliveries and poor quality in the past and the build-and-sell approach would be a sure way to provide them with a welcomed chance to see what they get before committing their hard earned money.

After all, most of us are putting our life savings into our "dream home" and the last thing we want is to go through a nightmare as it can easily turn out to be when dealing with an unscrupulous developer.

Lack of funds should not be accepted as an excuse for not adopting build-and-sell. If the developer does not have the funds than he should not even be a developer in the first place.

Perhaps developers need to look at downsizing projects and launch them in smaller phases to accommodate funding.

Banks, too, would be more receptive to fund projects if they were in smaller scale and a sales track record for a particular project could be shown.

It would also reduce risk of over-building, particularly in non-prime locations.