Galeri: Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Sheda) annual dinner and excellence award 2015 presentation

November 16, 2015 

Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg presents the Man of the Year 2015 award to Alex Ting (third right), witnessed by organising chairman Bobby Ting (left), Assistant Housing Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (third left), Sheda president Joseph Wong Kee Liong (fourth right) and others.

Abdul Karim: Ministry’s decision on target

June 23, 2015

SIBU: Allowing purchasers of completed housing units to apply for utility connections before the issuance of Occupation Permit (OP) is a development that Assistant Housing Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah is happy with.

Previously, he said, utilities could only be applied after the OP was issued.

“I am glad to hear that the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development agree in principle to allow purchasers of new completed houses to apply for connection of utilities to these houses before the issuance of Occupation Permits or OP.

“I believe this can help reduce the time for the release of new houses to the purchases,” Abdul Karim, who is Asajaya assemblyman, told The Borneo Post yesterday.

Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Sheda) had also lauded this decision by the ministry.

Sheda president Joseph Wong Kee Liong reportedly said in a statement recently that the leeway given by the ministry was valid, provided that the affected developers furnish a letter of undertaking to the relevant local councils.

Abd Karim: ‘Too early to see GST’s impact on house prices’

April 3, 2015 

BINTULU: Assistant Minister of Housing Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah yesterday said it was still too early to see the real impact of the Good and Services Tax (GST) on the price of houses in the state. 

“It will be a slight change but at the end of the day it will be always market forces that will determine the price of houses. 

“How much the unscrupulous developers try to capitalise, they want to jump into the bandwagon because all other things might seem to go up in price, so they start to increase the price but with no takers or no buyers they still need to settle the loan with the bank. 

“This kind of thing we will have to see as it goes, after a while then you will be able to see whether there is really a big jump, small jump or even a reduction on the price of houses,” he said in a media conference after officiating at the seminar on Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Ordinance 2013, Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Regulations 2014 and Housing Development (Control and Licensing) (Amendments) Regulations 2015 at ParkCity Everly Hotel yesterday. 

He said if many houses were developed at the same time, especially in Bintulu, the price of houses would definitely go down. 

But with increase in demand every year, he added, prices tend to increase. 

“Now we have to see whether the introduction of GST might have an effect on the price of houses but as it is I would say there might be a small increase in price, on how much percentage we would not be able to see but at the end of the day it is still determined by market forces, the consumer is the one who rules the day,” he elaborated.