GOVT EXPECTS TO REVIVE ONE THIRD OF ABANDONED HOUSING PROJECTS

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 (Bernama) -- The government today said that it would
at least revive one third of the 148 abandoned housing projects in the country.

Minister of Housing and Local Government, Kong Cho Ha, said that the
projects had affected more than 31,000 buyers.

He, however, noted that the number of abandoned projects was less than
0.9 percent of the 17,000 projects licensed by the ministry from 1990 until
now.

There are about 2.8 million houses under the 17,000 projects, he told
reporters after opening the Klang Valley MAPEX 2009 here.

Kong said the government was taking various steps to revive as many as
abandoned projects as possible.

However, he added that it will not be easy because a lot of abandoned
projects involved legal problems.

He said the projects would be revived through various ways involving either
the original developers or getting new developers to continue till completion
and delivery to the buyers.

The government is working closely with associations like the Real Estate and
Housing Developers Association Malaysia (REHDA) to complete the projects, he
said.

He also disclosed that some of the abandoned projects had already been taken
over by other developers, but declined to mentioned the number of projects
revived.

Kong also said the number of housing projects failure was less now with the
industry being more matured.

"Our statistics also show that the number of late deliveries over the years
have also reduced significantly," he added.
-- BERNAMA