Rehda: Fix a timeframe
06/10/2006 The Star

PENANG: Housing developers have appealed to the state to keep the policy of allowing unsold bumiputra units to be sold non-bumiputras after six months.

National Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) vice-president Datuk Eddy Choong said developers already faced problems with the state’s releasing mechanism for unsold bumiputra units.

Choong was commenting on the 30% quota in housing in the Draft Penang Structure Plan (2005-2020) report. The quota is also included in business premises, industries and tou-rism.

Under the report, the 30% quota would be maintained until they were bought by bumiputras.

Under the present system, bumiputra units which are unsold after six months can be released to non-bumiputras after the property has been advertised for sale three times.

“However, there are cases where it takes almost a year or longer before the units can be released,” he said.

He said if the quota under the draft structure plan report were to be implemented, a timeframe had to be fixed for developers to release the unsold bumiputra units to non-bumiputra buyers.

“Now, we face a situation where there are not enough bumiputras here to make the scheme a success.

“If the developers were forced to wait for an unspecified period of time, some developers will just have to close shop,” Choong said.

Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers northern branch chairman Datuk O.K. Lee said new industries which could not comply with the quota would simply go elsewhere.

“There’s no point in implementing the quota if there is not enough capacity to own, retain and grow.

“If there’s a lot of uncertainties, the move could drive investors away,” Lee said.