Despite reports that the Forest City developer would refund buyers from China, the developer has since indicated that is not the case.

“In the event of home booking cancellation, we would also like to clarify that cancellation after a sales and purchase agreement has been signed is deemed as a breach of contract.

“The penalty clause, ranging between 10 percent and 30 percent, only kicks in when a buyer, who has decided to purchase certain promoted residential units, decides to default on the payment or cancels the sales and purchase agreement,” the developer, Country Garden Holdings, said in a statement last night, as reported by The Straits Times.

Previously, it was reported that Country Garden would refund money to China buyers following Beijing’s tighter policy on capital controls.

Country Garden vice-president Zhu Jianmin purportedly said that buyers who had made downpayments on Forest City properties but are no longer able to transfer the rest of their payments out of China “can cancel the transaction and there is no need to pay for a forfeit fee”.

Zhu had also stressed that the Forest City project had always abided by both Malaysian and China’s rules and regulations, and that only five percent of buyers were considering withdrawing their purchase.

The Straits Times reported that the Country Garden statement last night seemed to be aimed directly at China buyers.

“The terms and conditions outlined in our sales and purchase agreements are in accordance with Malaysian laws and standards, and a complete set of the sales and purchase agreements are accessible in both English and Chinese at all our sales galleries in China,” the statement read.

The Straits Times also reported that buyers it contacted said they have not been informed by any change to Country Garden’s refund policy, and that sales staff they spoke to said there had been no such changes.

Some buyers, already in the process of seeking a refund, have accused Country Garden of dragging its feet or outright denying refunds.

“I called my sales officer on Tuesday and he could only say that my refund is still on hold.

“It’s been dragging on for more than a month, and all they can tell me is to wait,” said Zhang Guanguang, 27, who is a teacher from Hefei.

He had put a down payment of 110,000 yuan (S$22,300) last year for a 54 square metre apartment.

The Chinese government had in January barred its citizens from converting the yuan into other currencies to purchase overseas property.

The Johor Forest City development project, which is on four artificial islands near the border of Singapore and Malaysia, has been heavily marketed to China investors.

This has prompted questions of sovereignty, most notably by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.