Story by Mark James and Caleb Yeoh
RECENTLY, a syndicate “guaranteeing”applicants of affordable housing a unit if they paid up RM10,000 to RM30,000 has caught the attention of developers and the state government. The development company, Aspen Group, has received multiple complaints from the public that they have received phone calls from a syndicate demanding a hefty amount of money to secure a unit at the Tri Pinnacle housing project situated at Tanjung Tokong.
Almost immediately after receiving these complaints, Aspen lodged a police report on July 22 over the matter. State exco for Housing, Town and Country Planning Jagdeep Singh Deo has rubbished the notion that shortcuts are available to supersede the selection process overseen by Selection Process Enhancement Committee (SPEC). ”SPEC is run by an eight-person panel and SPEC prepares the lists of eligible applicants for affordable housing.
There is no other way to secure these housing selections; definitely no third party has the authority over this,” he said. He also warned members of the public not to fall for this scam and if they do come across these syndicates, he appeals for them to come forward to see him personally to assist the police in the investigations. ”We are doing this to help every Penangite to secure a roof above their heads. We will not let illegal syndicate operations undermine this effort,” he added.
As of July, 5,721 applicants have already been approved for their low cost and low medium cost housing with many more still being vetted through for further public and public-private affordable housing projects.
On Aug 1, Jagdeep had repeated his reminder to members of the public about the syndicate out to fool people to pay a sum of RM10,000 to RM30,000 to secure a housing unit.
”We do not want the public to be victims of unscrupulous agents. Selection of low-cost, low-medium cost and affordable housing is done by the Housing Department. We give the qualified buyers list to the developers and the developers will contact eligible individuals.
Then only you need to pay,” Jagdeep said.
He also thanked the police for their speedy action in responding after a police report was made by one of the developers when they were approached by members of the public who had been scammed. ”We have over 50,000 registered names in our Housing Department database who are eligible for low-cost, low-medium cost and affordable homes in all the five districts in Penang. Under extenuating circumstances, we will give priority to the chronic and critical cases such as low-cost homes for the disabled, single-mothers, those affected by disaster and other cases,” Jagdeep explained.