Discovery Of Abandoned Housing Project In Klang

Since 1990s’ Malaysia construction industry has been rapidly grown including such constructing commercial buildings, residences building, and also bridges. Buildings, bridges, factories, and construction site can be seen everywhere especially in hotspot urban areas; Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Putrajaya. These constructions eventually contributes to the country annual growth. Its performance of the construction sector has bring a strong growth of 19.3 percent in 2013 which cost 131.3 billion as compared to 2012, 110.1 billion (Department of Statistics Malaysia (DSM), 2015). In fact, these construction works are indeed need to be continuously growing as to cater also the population size of Malaysians that are increasing annually. According to (DSM, 2018), the estimated population of Malaysia in 2018 is 32.4 million as compared to 32.0 million in 2017 with an annual growth rate of 1.1 percent. So Malaysia will always need to construct new buildings however unfortunately some of them turns out failing leading to abandon projects.

As stated by Cambridge Dictionary, abandon is defined as to leave a place, thing, or a person, usually forever, while referring to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT), “Abandoned Projects” are defined as projects that meet the following criteria:·The project is not completed within or later than the delivery date stated in Sale & Purchase Agreement and no significant activity is noticed at the construction site for six (6) continuous months, or·‘Petisyen Penggulungan’ has been registered in the High Court under Section 218 of the Companies Act 1966, or Company is under the Receiver and Manager, or Developers are not able to acknowledge in writing to the ‘Pengawal Perumahan’, and·Confirmed as abandoned project by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government under Section 11 (1) (c) of Act 118. In Malaysia, these abandoned project issues are becoming worsen everyday which effect all parties; Client, Contractor, and Buyer moreover somehow these abandoned cases remains unsolved which bring great loss to them.

According to Local Government Minister Datuk Halimah Mohd Sadique, two hundred and twenty-six private housing development projects in Peninsular Malaysia have been abandoned since 2009. (The Star Newspaper, 2016). While nearly one-third of all abandoned housing projects in the country since 2009 are in Selangor (KPKT Minister, Tan Sri Noh Omar). The statistics in Selangor represent 32% of the total 253 abandoned private housing projects in the country (The Sun Daily, 2017). While Housing and Real Estate Boards (LPHS), mentioned total of 58 abandoned projects comes from Klang (LPHS, 2016). In fact, to be precise, having abandoned project is the only outer layer of the problem. The problems that people least expect are actually caused by those abandoned projects that creates more harm towards the environmental and socioeconomic.

Firstly, abandon projects create environmental pollution. Waste materials left at the site will attract more pest. Plus, stagnant water from the site produce aedes (harmful mosquito). Selangor itself has the highest dengue case as recorded by iDenggi portal; 204 daily cases while 24,674 collected cases since 31 December 2017. Not to forget, a dark, dirty, a place no one would be there is highly possible to be a drug addict port which seriously endangering other residents nearby. Moving on, excavation works more or less will change the land topography, landscape of the area and most important is the biodiversity of the area. Thus it is such a waste if the projects are suspended because, trees, grass, and hills were cut out. Furthermore, natural disaster such soil erosion, landslides, and building collapse might happen because change of topography as well no further maintenance was done so such unpredictable incident might happen. What’s more, labours loss their jobs, client/contactor loss their projects, buyers loss their money if they already buy the property. A very high amount of cost are wasted for it. Malaysia’s construction economy will also be effected. Thus facts above shown how severe the abandoned project issues in Malaysia construction industry thus need to discover the causes, prevention methods and recovery methods in order to solve these issues.

Based on the above discussion, can be learnt that Selangor has reached its critical phase of having the highest amount of abandoned projects especially in Klang area. A lot of problems occurred due to abandoned projects as they effected both the environment and socioeconomic. Environmental problems derived from the waste materials, stagnant water, land pollution, wastage land area, and imbalance or loss of biodiversity of the certain excavated area may result to unpredictable accidents. Furthermore, natural disaster such soil erosion, landslides, and building collapse might happen due to change of topography as well no further maintenance was done. While socioeconomic problems occur when all parties incur loss. Client and contactor loss their projects, labours loss their jobs whilst buyers loss their money if they already pay in advance. A very high amount of cost are wasted for it. In fact, Malaysia’s construction economy will also be effected. It is fear that without taking into consideration of these issues, more problems will arise from it. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the causes of projects abandoned and recommend ways of reviving it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Klang has the highest rate of abandoned housing project as to compare with other states. Based on above discussion, abandoned project brings disadvantages to nature and mankind. It is hope that by having this research, higher authorities could overcome these issues for a better living environment.