News by Datuk Chang Kim Loong

In the absolute BTS system, developers can only sell finished products that are ready for buyers to occupy, as opposed to the conven­tional sell-then-build (STB) system, where buyers pay 10% of the house price, followed by progressive payments as the developers build.

Datuk Chang Kim Loong: The grave injustice to innocent house buyers is to end up being victims of abandoned housing projects. It is a traumatic experience to have placed your entire savings to own a home, only to discover the house will never get completed, and worse, you still have to service the bank loan.

The gist of renovation refers to varying the original design of the existing habitat or housing unit either by addition, omission, or a combination of both. Some common examples are kitchen extension, adding a bedroom upstairs, a study downstairs, widening the living area, etc.

As common as this practice is though, excessive and indiscriminate renovations, approved or otherwise, make the whole neighbourhood appear disjointed, incongruous, uncoordinated, disharmonious and even at odds with the house next door, and as a result, the value of these properties suffer

The new generation of house buyers expects their homes to be defect-free. However, the quality of houses, which although has improved over the past decade, has not kept pace with buyers’ expectations in both design and finishes.

The basic purpose for a statutory declaration is to obtain confirmation of execution of any deed, written instrument or allegation or proof of debt which would otherwise be too impossible to prove. In other words, it is to provide written proof to confirm something either too tedious or impossible to verify

“It is therefore clear that the Parliament no longer saw fit for housing developers to collect booking fees before the signing of SPA. This has put to rest any notion that the collection of booking fees is still permissible.”

“There remain uncertainties and gaps in the legislation, which, we believe, have been intended to make the legislation flexible enough to allow for more protection for homebuyers. Yet it leaves lots of wiggling room for housing developers too…”

Datuk Chang Kim Loong: One thing is certain though, similar to the 2020 moratorium, the 2021 one does not reduce borrowers’ lending costs as it is not interest-free. Hence, interests will continue to be charged during the moratorium period, and ultimately, borrowers will end up paying more to the banks when the moratorium period ends.

“The unhealthy practice of liquidators imposing exorbitant administrative fees up to 2% or 3% of the purchase price (or in some cases, current market value of the properties) for executing the transfer of individual titles to purchasers has now become a norm.”