• All of us are hoping for a brighter future, and for this to happen, we need effective and sustainable policies that are properly thought out and implemented with the rakyat’s interest in mind.

The events of the past two years, starting with the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences, the disastrous floods and pollution of our waterways that affected millions of households, the premature changes in government leadership, the rise in inflation and cost of basic food items and utility bills, the dearth of good-paying jobs in the market and the rise of unemployment – to name a few – can put a damper on the hopes of many ordinary folk who are struggling to rise above all these challenges.

It’s true the hardship has brought out the tenacity, strength and unity among Malaysians, and we heartily celebrate this Malaysian spirit today.  

At the same time, all of us are hoping for a brighter future, and for this to happen, we need effective and sustainable policies that are properly thought out and implemented with the rakyat’s interest in mind.

Resolve long-standing plights

The National House Buyers Association (HBA) would like to see solutions to our long-standing woes – solutions that will truly lead to a better Malaysia:

1. Tangible actions by the authorities to resolve project abandonment issues instead of merely re-categorising them as sick or delayed projects;

2. Timely handovers of projects without cowing to the pressures and demands of industry players to grant extensions of time arbitrarily at the expense of denying house buyers’ rights in receiving statutory compensations for such delays;

3. Stricter actions to prevent defective and poor workmanship;

4. A more balanced financing system that will not burden ordinary house buyers to lifelong repayment terms with an interest rate that is higher than our average salary increment without the possibility or ease of terminating the arrangement even when faced with  abandoned housing problems;

5. Deterrent controls against developers who have the habit of winding themselves up to avoid their contractual and statutory obligations;

6. Preventive measures against professionals who take advantage of this lopsided system, (and in some instances supported and aided by a law and authorities who selectively apply the rules), especially when a developer is conveniently wound up after having sold a number of units to unsuspecting house buyers, and unilaterally and arbitrarily imposing professional fees of a certain percentage on the market price of the house unit under the guise of “administrative fees”;

7. Setting a system that is not overly dependent on importing inflation via massive imports of raw building materials and manpower, which are mostly traded in US dollars, when our local capacity is 100% in ringgit Malaysia;

8. Better regulations to ensure the majority of Malaysians are able to afford houses set within a certain protected category instead of allowing the original prices to be hiked up exponentially, keeping them beyond their reach and defeating the purpose of the plan for which it was created in the first place;

9. Solid long-term policies that truly empower the people instead of short-lived “new” policies that appear to correct this lopsided system, but in reality, further perpetuating the growing divergence between the haves and the have-nots.

Happy Malaysia Day!

This article is jointly written by a National House Buyers Association (HBA) author volunteer with legal background and some knowledge of Syariah principles, and by Datuk Chang Kim Loong, Hon Sec-Gen of HBA. 

HBA could be contacted at: Email: [email protected] Tel: 012 3345676

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