KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The Ministry of Housing and Local Government has recorded a total of 534 problematic housing projects across the country.

Of that number, 417 were categorised as "sick projects” and the remaining 117 considered as abandoned projects.

Based on the Private Housing Project Statistics by Category up to June 30, 2020, the 417 sick projects involved 84,498 housing units and 38,070 buyers, Sinar Harian reported.

"The current number of ‘sick’ housing projects shows an increase of 310 projects compared to 107 projects recorded in February this year according to the statistics released by the National Housing Department (JPN),” the report read.

"Sick projects” are defined as projects that have delayed more than 30 per cent compared to the progress that should have been made or if the period of the Sale and Purchase Agreement (PJB) has expired.

The five states with the highest number of sick housing projects are Selangor with 85 projects involving 19,520 housing units. This was followed by Johor (55 projects, 11,557 housing units); Perak (52 projects, 6,335 housing units); Pahang (49 projects, 5,527 housing units) and Kelantan (42 projects, 5,124 housing units).

Of the total "sick” projects, 80 of them are high-rise strata category projects, six were landed strata projects and 270 were landed projects, including homes under the 1Malaysia People’s Housing Programme (PR1MA).

Based on the updated JPN records as of July 7, the total number of abandoned housing projects stood at 117, with 102 of this number under the category of projects under rehabilitation, and another 15 are being restored.

The latest data on the number of abandoned housing projects also showed an increase of 48 per cent from the amount recorded on September 30 last year.

The total number of house units under the abandoned housing project category was 23,562 house units and involved 14,003 buyers.

"Of that total, 19,077 housing units or 81 per cent are projects under restoration while the remaining 19 per cent or 5,210 housing units are projects currently being restored,” the report read.

For the category of abandoned housing projects under rehabilitation, the state that recorded the highest number was Selangor, which involved 37 projects consisting of 15,044 housing units followed by Kelantan with (21 projects, 1,179 housing units), Terengganu (13 projects, 1,349 housing units); Johor (eight projects, 2,595 housing units) and Pahang (six projects, 825 housing units).

Only six states have abandoned housing projects under the category of being restored, with Selangor recording the highest number of 10 projects involving 3,914 housing units followed by Perak (two projects, 194 housing units) while Johor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang have one project respectively.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,022 developers were blacklisted by JPN for a variety of offences, with the largest number involving failure to pay compounds, or roughly 44 per cent involving 454 developers.