Housing developers should check with the government before building properties to curb the oversupply of certain properties in the market, said Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani.

He said this was necessary as there is an oversupply of studio and service apartments at the moment.

"It is good for developers to get more information from the urban wellbeing, housing and local government ministry" he said on the sidelines of an event here, today.

He was asked by reporters if the government will take action on developers who abandoned their projects.

National House Buyers Association (HBA) secretary-general Chang Kim Loong told FMT earlier that there will be more abandoned property developments if the government and developers do not take the freeze on luxury property development seriously.

He had said it could be as bad as the situation in the mid-1980s and during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-2000 when many property developments were affected and projects abandoned.

Chang was referring to the cabinet decision to freeze luxury property developments, announced on Nov 19, but which later was clarified as only affecting projects that had not been approved.

Then, earlier this month, DBKL said it would go ahead with luxury property projects, disregarding the freeze order from Putrajaya.

As a result, many questions remain as to which areas were really affected by the decision.

Chang voiced his concerns over the matter in looking ahead to what would be in store in 2018.

To date, the government has registered 253 abandoned private housing projects in Peninsular Malaysia since 2009.

In November, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had responded to reports on the country facing a residential property glut and warned that it was at the highest level in a decade.

According to BNM, the pricing of residential properties at above RM250,000 is the main reason for this oversupply as most Malaysians cannot afford them.

"There were 130,690 unsold units at the end of March this year, with 83% priced at above RM250,000. Also, 61% of the unsold units are high-rise apartments, ” Bank Negara had said.