Involve developers when formulating new housing policies, says Mah Sing COO

The Johor government has been urged to hold a discussion with property developers before deciding on any new policy such as mandating that the latter provide telecommunication facilities for future development projects.

Mah Sing Group Bhd chief operating officer Benjamin Ong Chin Yee said this was important as developers needed to give their views so that every policy being set would be good for the property sector.

“Every policy that is made should consider the interest of all parties, including the buyers, developers and shareholders.

“As a developer, we face the challenge on how to meet the requirement while also offering affordably-priced residences.

“This is an important matter as any new policy will result in additional costs that indirectly will affect housing prices,” he told a press conference in conjunction with the launch of Acacia double-storey link homes at the Mah Sing sales gallery in Pasir Gudang here.

Ong was commenting on the Johor government’s plan to make the provision of telecommunication facilities a mandatory condition for developers when drafting building plans in the future.

Last month, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said telecommunication facilities were just as important as water and electricity supply and there would come a stage when telecommunication infrastructure or its digital aspects would be a mandatory requirement in any development planning or building plans.

“However, Johor will conduct an in-depth study on this matter for cooperation from developers. The local authorities are also ready to process and accept this proposal,” he was reported as saying.

Hasni also noted that while some developers had taken the initiative to provide such infrastructure in their projects, the effort had not been comprehensive.

On a separate matter, Ong said his company took pride in Pasir Gudang being accorded a city status on Nov 22.

“For us, as a developer, this upgrade in status is meaningful as Mah Sing has projects in Pasir Gudang and the move will definitely give added value in terms of land and property investments that we undertake,” he said.

According to Ong, Johor is an important market for Mah Sing so the company will make more property investments here in the future besides aggressively boosting its land bank in the state.

On the Acacia project, he said the 187 two-storey link houses, each with a built-up area of 1,838 square feet, were priced starting from RM498,000.

To-date, 80 per cent of the units had been sold, he said. – Bernama

Source: NST