By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Sept 4: The Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association (SHEDA) is calling for the term “sick project” to be rephrased or removed, saying a single delayed housing project should not stigmatise an otherwise well-performing developer.
SHEDA president Dato Augustine CH Wong said the association instead supports a comprehensive developer performance rating system based on clear and fair metrics to give house buyers a more accurate picture of a developer’s track record.
“One late delivery should not stigmatise a
property developer.
“If we judge a developer by one mistake, we
overlook and undermine their true performance,” he said when speaking at the opening of the SHEDA Property Expo 2026 at voco Kuching by IHG here today.
He illustrated his point with the example of a student named Billy, who is a consistent straight-A student but scores a C after a series of unforeseen events before an important examination.
Billy’s mother falls down the stairs and fractures her foot, forcing him to take her to hospital. On the way, his car tyre hits a nail and gets punctured, before rain begins to fall while he is fixing it and he subsequently catches a cold.
“If we judge Billy by that one C, we overlook his true performance.
“One bad paper does not make a bad student. One late delivery should not stigmatise a property developer,” Wong said.
He further said SHEDA wants to work with the Sarawak government on a performance framework that can assess developers using quantifiable data rather than allowing one incident to define their reputation.
“We believe that a performance rating system with clear and fair metrics will give a better perspective of how a developer is really performing and support reputation with quantifiable data.
“SHEDA is ready to work with the Sarawak government to explore creating this comprehensive and balanced developer performance framework together,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
