Ministry's decision to ensure projects adhere to build-and-sell concept welcomed

PETALING JAYA: The National House Buyers Association (HBA) has hailed the announcement by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government that it will streamline all housing projects to ensure that they adhere to the build-and-sell concept.
"This is indeed good news for the rakyat who have been pleading for years for this concept to be adopted in order to put some organisation into the housing industry, and to ease nightmares brought about by the housing industry," said HBA Secretary-General Chang Kim Loong (pix).
He said that there was a brief relief in 2013 when the previous government decided that from 2015 the industry will migrate from the troublesome sell-then-build (STB) to the more efficient build-then-sell (BTS).
The system was to be called the BTS 10:90, hybrid of the BTS.
"Under a BTS 10:90 system, house buyers pay 10% when booking and 90% when the housing project is completed," he said.
"However, that was short-lived as the then minister threw the whole idea out the window much to the anger and disappointment of the rakyat," he said.
He said that it was a unanimous decision with housing groups and NGO's that Malaysia was ready for the BTS 10:90 but only Rehda objected.
"Hence we are delighted with the new minister's announcement that the government will adhere to the BTS concept."
Earlier, Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin had said that they will adhere to the BTS concept.
She said the move was to ensure the polemics of abandoned housing projects stretching for long periods to be thoroughly addressed.
"We will adjust (this accordingly) so that it follows a build-and-sell concept, rather than have bookings made available to buyers when the project has not even reached 10% completion.
"I have encountered a lot of cases in the country where housing project are not completed even after eight to 10 years, but the buyers still need to service their bank loans.
"Many are upset because a sales policy such as this is senseless. So we're going to streamline everything," she said in an exclusive interview recently.
Zuraida said other aspects to be revised were loan processes from banks to ensure that the people would be able to own a home.
The matter, she said, would be resolved through discussions with the Finance Ministry and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in the near future.
"Some people have side incomes, but this is not included in the criteria for determining the approval of housing loans based on the requirements of the banking industry.
"Therefore, we want to have this included so that it can be properly considered and taken into account, with the condition of its validity proven through documentation.