KL revives developer fund

KL revives developer fund

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia has revived a fund to help developers who ran out of cash before completing housing projects, Housing Minister Ong Ka Ting said Thursday.

He told a conference that 157 private housing projects were abandoned as of the end of last year. But only 46 of them -- totaling 13,855 homes -- could be revived at an estimated cost of 1.3 billion ringgit ($342 million).

The others either had problems involving developers and landowners, or were too costly to be saved, Ong was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as saying.

Ong did not disclose the amount of the fund.

A project is categorized as abandoned when work has stopped for more than six months, when developers admit they cannot continue, or when the ministry judges that developers cannot finish the job.