The National House Buyers Association (HBA) has welcomed the Ministry of Housing and Local Government’s decision to streamline all housing projects to ensure that developers adhere to the build-and-sell concept, reported The Sun Daily.
Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin had earlier announced that the ministry will adhere to the BTS concept to address the issue of abandoned housing projects.
“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 Chang Kim Loong Secretary-General of HBA.
He revealed that a brief relief was seen in 2013, when the previous government announced that it will shift from the troublesome sell-then-build (STB) system to build-then-sell (BTS).
A hybrid of the BTS, the system was to be known BTS 10:90.
“Under a BTS 10:90 system, house buyers pay 10 percent when booking and 90 percent when the housing project is completed,” said Chang.
“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.”
In fact, the housing groups and non-governmental organisations unanimously agreed that Malaysia was ready for the BTS 10:90, with the Real Estate and Housing Development Association (REHDA) being the only one objecting to the idea.
“Hence we are delighted with the new minister’s announcement that the government will adhere to the BTS concept.”
Zuraida had said that the ministry 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 percent 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 a recent interview.
Image sourced from Rightways
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