by “Angry Housing Developer”
What I am going to relate did happened and if you are doubtful you may check with other developers from the Klang valley who were called to attend a meeting at DBKL on 31st July 2007.
The meeting was for the purpose of releasing the overdue bumiputra quotas of houses which had remained unsold after having complied more than once the stipulated conditions of DBKL.
All the developers who attended the meeting had already complied with the conditions of publishing in the major newspapers for sale of bumiputra units and in addition we were told to book a space in Mid Valley or a designated place for further campaign to sell the bumi units.
The above exercise does not come cheap. Advertising space in the major papers and rental of space at Mid Valley cost us close to RM20,000. Can you imagine our frustration when we were told to repeat the whole exercise when we could not sell the bumi units.
In exasperation I told the DBKL officials that even if we were to give 20% discount to the Malays they would not buy our houses because it was located in Salak South, Sg Besi, an exclusive middle class enclave of the urban Chinese. Nearby there is a market selling pork and a Chinese school. Also in the vicinity is a food court selling non halal food. So would any Malays want to buy them? No said the official, “You have to advertise in the papers again and do the campaign at Mid Valley again” without any compromise.
We are a small housing developer and the total units built was 40 and the bumi allocation was 12. At RM420,000 per unit an amount close to RM5 million was tied down to the project. No wonder alot of small companies were forced to abandon their projects. We had complied with all the stipulated conditions and now after more than a year of waiting DBKL still did not want to release the units to be sold to non bumis.
Instead we were called to attend a meeting on 31st July 2007. At the meeting DBKL dropped a bombshell. Since we could not sell the bumi’s quota we have to now pay the bumi discount direct to DBKL. In our case since we gave a 7% discount each unit would have to be paid RM29,400. For the 12 unsold bumi unit we have to pay RM352,800 to DBKL.
All the developers who attended the meeting protested vehemently at the atrocious policy and refused to pay and the meeting ended without any resolution. Meanwhile, the approval to release the bumi units remain suspended since no decision was made.
Instead of abolishing altogether the bumi discount of houses DBKL has deemed it fit to demand that the bumi discount instead be paid to them. We would like to ask DBKL what rationale is there to give a discount to bumis who could afford to buy a RM420,000 house? This is clearly an abuse of the NEP.
Further, if DBKL is so adamant that the units be sold to Bumis why dont DBKL buy the units from the developers and sell it at their own leisure to Malay buyers. Why should developers bear the cost of implementing their bumiputra ownership policy. It is thoroughly unfair to expect developers to even bear the cost of advertisement and conducting roadshow in order to comply with DBKL social engineering schemes.
Finally, we as businessmen are entitled to an explanation from DBKL whether this is government policy or is it merely DBKL acting on its own whims and fancy. As businessmen we have to factor this in our costing and any spontaneous and arbitrary change in policy is certainly detrimental to investors expectation.