One Jesselton buyers kept waiting in anguish three years past completion date

PETALING JAYA (Oct 28): Some of the early buyers of the One Jesselton Condominium in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah have found themselves in limbo after years of waiting as their units, which were supposed to have been handed over to them in 2018, are now still under construction.

One of them, Stephen Lee, 62 who purchased the unit and inked the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) in 2015, had intended the unit as a wedding present for his son who was planning to get married.

According to Lee and the SPA sighted by EdgeProp.my, the project was scheduled to complete within 36 months after the SPA was signed, which means the units should have been handed over in 2018.

However, this has not happened. Lee’s son, who got married in early 2020, has to stay in another place as his wedding home is not ready.

“I have been calling the developer’s office to follow up and the last they told us was that the project will be completed by the end of this year, but from the looks of it, it is nowhere near completion. Now, my son is renting a condominium elsewhere and have to fork out RM2,300 a month in rental,” lamented Lee.

Developed by Bina Puri Holdings Bhd, One Jesselton Condominium is sited on a two-acre freehold plot at Jalan Banjaran, Kepayan. It comprises 125 units with built-ups ranging from 964 sq ft to 2,660 sq ft.

During its launch in 2015, the unit's price ranged from RM603,000 to RM1.9 million.

Lee wasn’t the only buyer who faced this problem. Grace Tei, 57, who also bought a unit for her children, has been left in a difficult situation.

She told EdgeProp.my that she decided to buy a unit in One Jesselton as she trusted the developer, which is a public-listed company that has projects locally and overseas, would deliver the project on time.

However, the trust was broken when there was no sign of completion of the project as promised in 2018.

“Initially, I did follow up with the office but subsequently, they kept on pushing the dates again and again. In fact, the reason I bought this project was also because the project is near where I am currently staying. Otherwise, I would have purchased another project nearby instead of this project,” Tei said.

Margaret Ng, 54 who was working in Singapore previously for over two decades, bought a unit in 2018. She planned to move into the new unit when she returned to Malaysia after she retire, but was disappointed to find out that her unit was still under construction without a clear deadline of completion by the developer.

Ng revealed that the borrowing bank had disbursed 84.16% of the payment for the unit, as of Sept 21, 2021.

“I had to resort to renting since I came back now while waiting for this condo project to complete while paying thousands of monthly mortgage. Because of my age, I did not want to opt for the moratorium,” said Ng.

According to her, the property buyers including herself have been checking with the developer on the completion date but no clear answer was given.

Meanwhile, Bina Puri executive director Datuk Matthew Tee told EdgeProp.my that the project was delayed because its main contractor, China-based Jiangsu Provincial Construction (M) Sdn Bhd, downed tools during the construction period and Bina Puri is taking legal action against the contractor.

“Also, the Covid-19 [and lockdown] limitation has made it not possible to start work. For your information, we recently mobilised again. There are works at the site now,” said Tee.

However, he declined to reply when asked when the project will be completed.

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