Johor to charge developers extra for changing land status

JOHOR BARU: The state government will impose a surcharge on developers soon for projects that involve converting the land status, which increases its value.

The funds from the surcharge will be channelled to local authorities for infrastructure and landscape works to benefit the community.

State Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Latif Bandi said Johor would follow in the footsteps of Perak, Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan which charge property developers who want to change the use of their land.

Other chargeable factors include expanding the project’s floor area and converting the project status from low density to high density, he said.

“Developers will be charged, for example, if they want to convert land that was meant for agriculture use to commercial use for their development,” he said at the Johor serviced apartments and mixed development plan seminar here yesterday.

Abdul Latif said a detailed study of the proposal had been done and would be presented to Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin for approval.

The state plans to start imposing the surcharge from early next year.

He said developers who convert their land now only needed to pay the difference in the property tax premium.

He added that the provision to impose the surcharge was provided for under Section 32 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172).

Abdul Latif said the seminar was to brief developers on the set of guidelines for mixed developments to replace the development of serviced apartments due to oversupply of such units in the state.

He said that as of the second quarter of this year, Johor recorded 95,150 apartment units in Iskandar Malaysia, compared to an expected demand for 26,677 units by 2025.