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KUALA LUMPUR (August 3): A ruling issued by the national Land Council in 2014 allows foreigners to buy freehold property in Forest City said Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar, and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will not change this.
“Regarding the Forest City issue, I said earlier that foreigners can buy freehold properties. This is pursuant to a ruling made by the council effective March 2014,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today, reported by Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
Xavier was responding to Hassan Abdul Karim (PH-Pasir Gudang), who requested clarification on the government's stand in this matter, and if it would breach the national land code.
Section 344 (b) of the National Land Code says the state authority has the right to grant foreigners approval to acquire properties. This is subject to guidelines issued by the Economic Planning Unit.
The council will abide by these guidelines.
The minister explained that the National Land Code would have to amended, should the government decide to stop the sale of freehold properties in the project.
FMT reported that in March of last year, Dr Mahathir Mohamad had written that Najib Razak (prime minister at the time) claimed the sale of the properties would not impact Malaysia's sovereignty, as they were under 99-year leaseholds.
Mahathir said that Najib was attempting to confuse the public.
He also noted that while foreigners could easily convert the status to freehold, many Malaysians had failed to do so with their Forest City properties.
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