The challenges of Build Then Sell (BTS) concept in Malaysian housing development: The perspective of housing developers / Wan Lutfaniah Wan Mohamad

For almost 40 years the government has implemented the ‘Sell Then Build’ (STB) concept for housing delivery system in Malaysia. Unfortunately, under this concept there are many arguments and disputes from various parties especially the home buyers. Therefore, the government began to introduce a new system known as ‘Build Then Sell’ (BTS) concept in order to solve the matter. This concept has long implemented by developed countries such as Australia, United Kingdom and Singapore. In Malaysia, BTS was introduced since 2004. However there are many complaints and criticisms raised by the developer because they felt this concept is not fair for them and only give advantage to the buyer. Therefore, many developers reluctant to implement the new concept. There are two (3) objectives for this paper. The first objective is to make comparison between STB and BTS concept regarding the advantages and disadvantages of both. The second objective is to identify the factors that prevent the BTS application by the developers. The last objective, to give input in order to improve the existing of BTS concept in achieving the win-win situations for both the developer and the house buyers. To obtain input from the developers, in-depth interview was been conducted on 3 selected housing developers. The selection is short listed from the current list issued by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) regarding the developer involved in various BTS project. The results of this study indicate that the developers are not ready to implement the BTS concept.