THE Sabah Central Board which approved Development Plans (DP) would be dismantled and replaced with a new scheme to speed up development projects in the state. 

Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal said the state government is looking at various ways to shorten the timeframe and reduce the cost for developers to kick start projects. 

“I’m looking into it and we want to see how best can we introduce a new kind of scheme or system. So far, we have done quite a bit then, but give us more time, I think soon it will be there,” he said. 

Sabah developers have long lamented the complicated and lengthy process involved to get their residential and commercial projects through the central board, which can take up to five years for a single project.  

The authority to approve DPs were under the jurisdiction of local council governments but the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government had centralised the system. 

Developers had to bear the cost of land premiums, overdraft and bank loans which were factored into their cost of development. 

The lengthy DP approval is cited as one of reasons housing prices in the state have surged tremendously.

“But what is important here, the end user must benefit and the faster you give the approval, it will be more money you can generate into the economy.

“This more important to me, whether I have to decentralise that or delegate the work to someone else, whats important it will function and cost less,” he said. 

Meanwhile Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association welcomed the initiative but it still waits for the government’s white paper on the matter.

“We dont want to get into a legal dispute with any parties if we suddenly rushed things through with any projects,” said council member Wesley Chai. 

In a related development, Shafie said the government is also looking into resolving the strata titles issue to apartment owners in the state. 

An initiative implemented by the previous BN government last year was making it mandatory for developers to convert the land use before their DPs could be approved. 

“I have yet to deal with it, because I haven’t got the report. But we have a committee and will deal with the issue soon.” – August 16, 2018.