Boom to gloom
24/05/2008 NST By Azira Shaharuddin
A sad state. One of the many housing projects in the Klang Valley that was
abandoned.
Iskandar wants 139 abandoned housing projects revived
House buyers of low-cost units showing their frustration recently after the
project was abandoned.
An abandoned housing project amid overgrown grass.SHAH ALAM: There are
139 abandoned housing projects in Selangor, and that is too big a figure for
Iskandar Abdul Samad, the state executive councillor in charge of housing,
building management and squatters.
Iskandar said he is making it his number one priority to see that these
projects are revived.
He is calling on the local councils, state government and federal government
to work together in solving this issue, which has caused so much financial
misery to the unfortunate house buyers.
Iskandar, the Chempaka state assemblyman, wants the developers to explain
why they failed to complete their projects.
"If the problem stems from the state government such as land problem or
difficulty in getting approvals, we are ready to expedite it," he said.
But Iskandar pointed out that if the developers face financial problems, it
would be hard for the state government to help them.
He said in most cases, the developer was a small company with lack of funds
and experience.
"But there are also cases where the developer is a big corporation but the
project was abandoned because the company had many other projects to
complete," he said.
Iskandar suggested that one solution is to sell the affected housing
projects to other developers which will then continue them.
He pointed out that with Selangor having a high density population
(especially in the Klang Valley), many developers tried to cash in on
housing and this has led to many abandoned projects. |
