11-05-2025
15 years later, Sabah house buyers are still the victims
Published on: Sunday, May 11, 2025
Published on: Sun, May 11, 2025 Text Size: The news item from the Daily Express of August 2009, refers. More than 15 years have passed. Has the situation improved? Do house or property buyers get their title within months of moving in like in Singapore? Answer is NO. Maybe it will still be the same few years from now, or even 10 years from now. Ministers come and ministers go. Even the State Government has changed 2-3 times since 2009. The situation is still the same. The house buyers are still the sufferers or victims. The present Housing Minister is a former Assistant Housing Minister. Therefore he should know the problem and deal with it quickly from the day he became Minister. Even the officer in charge of housing when he was Assistant Minister also transferred or retired already. Even New who said this 15 years ago also retired already. Even one of the speakers, lawyer Lam also migrated to Canda already. Nothing has changed. Meanwhile the officers concerned are enjoying fat salaries and maybe receiving 'courtesy calls' from developers every now and then. Still no Strata Titles. One such project is the Cyber City Apartments where owners have lived for more than 10 years. A few have died or sold their properties out of frustration. The Strata Title remains a dream. It seems that even the officers in the Ministry cannot 'touch' the developer. Powerful ah? Of course the developers will give all kinds of excuses when questioned. As stated by one of the speakers the Management Corporation (MC) cannot be used as an excuse It's a separate matter. Election is coming soon. I wonder if after election and there is a new Housing Minister, will the situation improve? I certainly hope so but it's only a hope. No wonder my West Malaysian friend said in Sabah anything goes. My advice to the Housing Minister is, instead of concentrating on jailing housing developers, why don't you concentrate on solving simple matters like Strata Titles. Hefty fines and blacklisting developers will do. Jail does not necessarily solve everything. Their relatives or friends can start new companies and projects as their proxies. While house buyers suffer if a project is delayed or abandoned, equally frustrating will be living in a house for more than 10 years with no Strata Title in sight. Sabah Maju Jaya. Housing Victim The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
