Real Estate and Housing Development Association (Rehda) Kedah chief Rique Liew has vented his frustration over what he sees as the state government's inaction in approving property development.

NONE Since January this year, he claimed, absolutely no projects have been approved by the state exco in Sungei Petani, with the problem now rearing its ugly head in state capital of Alor Setar from this month.

"Because there has been zero supply of new homes in Sungai Petani. In Alor Setar, limited supply of double-storey link house means prices are now RM300,000 when they cost RM200,000 the year before," he told a media briefing on the property market in Kuala Lumpur today.

Liew claimed that the state government has refused to approve the developments in Sungai Petani, even though the projects  have received approval from local governments and other bodies.

"Initially the government said it was because of low water pressure, or not enough water supply,” he explained when met on the sidelines of the briefing.

"But the state water agency has stated otherwise and still nothing is going ahead.”

The state water agency had given its assessment, along with other agencies, he said, following the formation of a committee to study what appeared to be  regulatory bottlenecks.

"We had this committee working with housing exco member Phahrolrazi Zawawi, which has met for four months since March, and everything is in order.

"However, the projects are still not approved," said Liew, who is managing director of Paramount Property Development.

'MB's poor health cited as a reason'

He said the state government cited Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak's poor health as a reason for the non-approvals.

Liew, whose company's development in Bandar Laguna, Merbok, won the award for best residential development, said applications for property development in Alor Setar were now being rejected - for the same reason of water shortage.

"But all the agencies have approved it... so now I am taking money from Kuala Lumpur developments to maintain the Kedah office,  but I don't know how long we can do that," Liew said.

He added that, while he is apolitical, things have gone haywire since Pakatan Rakyat took over Kedah in March 2008.

"Alor Setar is 97 percent Malay reserve land so what the BN government did was to allow land swaps, where developers can swap land in Alor Setar with freehold land elsewhere of same value, plus a five percent area size.

"This was overturned in March 2008, but developers made a lot of noise so now the state government allows it on ad hoc, case-by-case basis, which we don't argue with," he said, hinting that politics may have a role in the situation.

Developers expect higher property prices