Housing Ministry mulls system to streamline housing data

KUALA LUMPUR: The Housing and Local Government Ministry plans to introduce a system that would streamline housing data nationwide next year.

National housing department director-general Jayaselan Navaratnam said the ministry is working with the National Property Information Centre (Napic) to establish the system by year-end. It is now at the initial stage of streamlining the data.

“A system needs to be developed and we need to manage and modify the system. When the system is ready, it will be rolled out for developers to key in their data, so that we can see how effective the system is. We want to roll it out in January 2019 for a test run and see how developers react,” he told reporters at the Affordable Housing Conference 2018 yesterday.

Jayaselan said at present, the various housing data available differ due to the different starting points of data collection. For example, the ministry collects data when developers apply for building license while Napic collects data when planning approval and building plan are issued.

He said the ministry also needs to re-calculate certain data such as when homes under programmes like Rumah Selangorku or PR1MA are built by private developers and are reported by both the developer and agency.

“Both parties (the ministry and Napic) have agreed that we need the same information but the starting point is different. So we are now adjusting the starting point and data definitions,” he said.

The ministry is also planning to draft a Commercial Development Act in order to standardise and regulate the segment, which includes SoHo and SoVo units.

“We also do not have a standardised sales and purchase agreement for commercial property and commercial property owners also have claims to make but they only can go to normal open court instead of tribunal,” said Jayaselan.

He said the Act would encourage better management of commercial properties while providing security and assurance to purchasers.

He added that the ministry will take at least two years to study the Act, which will be standardised nationwide.