KUCHING, Nov 4 — Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan today blamed developers for the many high-rise buildings in the state without strata titles.
He cited the failure of the developers to pay the land premium to the Land and Survey Department has resulted in strata titles not being issued to apartments and shoplots.
“I can give an example where the developers of an apartment near the Kuching International Airport who have failed to pay the land premium so the strata titles could not be issued to the property buyers.
“The developers were pressured to pay the land premium, which they eventually did, and the strata titles were eventually issued to the property buyers.
“So, in this case, we are considering the interest of the property buyers,” he told reporters after the Sarawak State Assembly has passed the Strata (Subsidiary Titles) Bill 2019 to replace the Strata Titles Ordinance 1995.
Awang Tengah, who is also the second minister of urban development and resources, said there are a number of developers who failed to fulfill the conditions to have their projects approved.
“One of these conditions is that they must build affordable housing and if they fail to fulfil this condition, then the state government will not issue the strata titles,” he said, adding the state government views non-compliance of the conditions as very serious.
In tabling the Bill earlier, Awang Tengah said due to rapid changes in land development including strata, the current Strata Titles Ordinance 1995 (Chapter 18) is inadequate to cater to the current and future demands of the industry.
He said as of October 31, 2019 there are 280 strata projects which comprise of 18,323 strata titles, with Kuching Division contributing the highest number of strata units totalling 12,443 strata titles.
“Out of 280 strata projects, 76.7 per cent or 215 projects have been completed and issued with 11,962 strata titles while the remaining 23.3 per cent or 65 projects are still in various stages of development,” he said.
He said repealing the current Strata Titles Ordinance 1995 and replacing it with the new ordinance will enable the issuance of subsidiary titles, the establishment of management corporations and the overall improvement of protections to all stakeholders involved in strata title development.
“This new law has been benchmarked against best practices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia as well as engagement with our counterpart in Johor and Selangor.
“Engagements were also held with other professional bodies in the state such as Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (SHEDA), Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia, Sarawak Chapter (RISM), Land Surveyor Board Sarawak and Malaysia Institute of Planners Sarawak and Sabah Chapter,” he added.
