A Dream Realised Yet Remains A Dream

Imagine you have a dream, to own a house facing the beach or a home on a cliff at the edge of the sea. And you saved long and hard to realise your dream because you just want to spend the remainder of your life at your dream home.

Source: http://www.lhhscotland.com/property?id=301

Then you chanced upon an ad in the papers such a home is available. So it is not a house but an apartment / condominium. It faces the sea and you felt it is affordable. You decided to deposit and buy the house. You can't wait to wake up to smell the sea breeze or just stare out into the ocean. You can now strike out your wish list as you bought a home by the sea.

What happen next is really sad. You were passing by a notice board in front of your condominium / apartment and to your horror, a land reclamation project has been initated to extend the beach and there is a developer intending to build a condominium. It will definitely obstruct the sea view of your unit. To make matters worse, you might not be able to access the beach anymore as the land is now in private hands.

So now how brown cow? The apartment / condominium easily loses value because of this development. Buyers can never be sure the view with the sea they have today would be obstructed some day.

Where can the people turn to in times like this? Is this real in this country?

Source: http://cornish.co.uk/blog/2008/05/12/tickets-to-bali-and-broken-cameras/

Perhaps what the state government in Penang is doing now is not undoing what the previous state government has decided on the Queensbay land. But one wonders what authority can the rakyat turn to protect the remaining shorelines and beachfronts for the benefit of everyone.

On technicality, it seems what the Penang state government is doing is legal by converting reclaimed land from leasehold to freehold. Yet the implications are great considering such loopholes which exist in the National Land Code opens up a tempting prospect to greedy developers which would have the means to ensure that they profit greatly at the expense of the helpless rakyat who just wants to have their view to the sea.

I hope Lim Guan Eng would see to it that the conversion of Queensbay land from leasehold to freehold will be the last thing every happen to all Penang foreshores and beachfronts. Perhaps the state government has the means to enact laws to prevent it. I am no legal expert but surely, land as far as I understand it, is under state jurisdiction.

Sigh... a sad day indeed for people like me. I do have a dream that someday I can retire by living in a home facing the sea. Yet will it truly be the sea I wake up to in the mornings or just another concrete building obstructing the view with only my imagination that there is a sea beyond it?