KUALA LUMPUR; The Council of Buildings (COB) of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has issued a circular prohibiting room partitions (adding bedrooms) in commercial-titled apartments with strata status under its jurisdiction in Kuala Lumpur.

The circular, which became effective on August 1, 2023, was addressed to the chairman of all Joint Management Bodies (JMB), Management Corporations (MC), and Sub Management Corporations (Sub-MC) in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Kamarulzaman Mat Salleh noted in the circular that all service apartments and SOHOs with strata titles in the city are prohibited from building walls to create more bedrooms.

He provided numerous reasons for the ban, the first being that converting living rooms and dining rooms into new bedrooms increases the number of rooms in an apartment or SOHO unit.

This, he said, would be in violation of the original Development Order (DO) approved by the relevant authorities, including DBKL.

According to Kamarulzaman, the rule is also in place because adding more rooms would mean that the current living areas would not receive enough natural light, and the number of occupants for a unit would increase.

He said that adding more bedrooms would make it appear that they were being rented out for extra cash.

According to the circular, this prohibition is meant to avoid the existence of residential units intended for commercial use, such as hostels, as well as a rise in traffic and density, which would cause problems for the adjacent people.

The circular was issued on July 21, 2023, and it was made available for download on the DBKL's official website.