This paper intends to analyze, define and reclassify delay in housing delivery system in Malaysia. The latedelivery in construction project has become common problem in the industry, especially housing project inMalaysia. As old school approaches are not effective to mitigate the delay occurrence, there is a need to rethinkand reclassified the delay factors so that the housing delivery delay could be effectively avoided. The aim of thispaper is to reclassify the housing delivery delay factors in order to simplify the delays detection and mitigationprovisions. The delay factors are classified into structural, institutional and cultural. A comprehensive literaturereview from various sources has made to carry out the study. The study found that construction stage is themajor contribution to housing delivery delay. Besides, the study also identified 18 critical structural delayfactors, 3 institutional delay factors, and 3 cultural delay related factors in Malaysian housing industry.