Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah
SIBU: The number of private housing development projects in the state that were abandoned is very low with just 20 recorded between 1996 and 2007.
This contrasted with the 26 abandoned projects in the peninsula just this year and a total of 134 abandoned private housing projects there between 2013 and last month.
Assistant Minister for Housing Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said this could be partly attributed to new government mechanisms involving heavier penalties for defaulting developers.
He said under Section 12(1) Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Ordinance 2013, all developers are required to open a Housing Developers Account.
“In addition, the Housing Ministry has in 2016 introduced monitoring of projects via Online Homeapps. Using this Homeapps, developers that fail to send progress reports to the Housing Ministry promptly will be investigated and recovery could be done earlier and before the project gets more difficult to salvage,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
The abandoned projects developed between 1996 and 2007 were in Kuching (11), Samarahan (one), Sibu (five), Kapit (two) and Miri (one).
He said possible measures included recovery by the original developer, recovery by new developer and for low cost houses recovery using government funding.
“This measure, however, is if the project is a low cost project, which is abandoned. So far, there is none in this category to-date. We do not have this problem so far,” Abdul Karim added.