GEORGE TOWN: The concession rights obtained by the developer of the RM300mil Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway are now worth RM5bil, said Penang Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow.

“Former Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s outburst had not been able to dispel that fact as industry players had estimated the gross development value was over RM5bil because The Light project area was worth RM500 to RM600 per sq ft.

“Dr Koh had given the developer concession rights, including rights to reclaim land, cash payment for land acquisition and squatters relocation, and waiver to development charges, that are now worth RM5bil or more,” he said in a press statement yesterday.

In yesterday’s report, Dr Koh, also Gerakan president, had lashed out at Chow over claims that the previous Barisan Nasional administration had a “scandalous” agreement with a developer over the expressway.

“Chow’s allegations that the developer of the expressway could get up to RM5bil in development value was misleading and ridiculous.

“The development value of the project should be taken at the 1997 price, not the current price,” he had said.

Koh had estimated the development value for the expressway, previously known as the Jelutong Expressway, at 1997 to be RM656.5mil.

Chow said the state secretariat only used the “old” rate of RM90 for freehold and RM74 for leasehold to calculate the value of the reclaimed land as if they had used the current value, it would have added a few billion ringgit.

Dr Koh’s argument, he added, that the state should not use the current value to evaluate the 1997 concession agreement showed that he (Dr Koh) had ignored the importance of development value on the reclaimed land as a major source of revenue for the developer.

“To date, the developer had only spent RM242mil on the yet-to-be completed expressway but had already enjoyed the profits from the multi-billion ringgit property development.

“Our records also showed that the previous administration had given an advance of RM33.18mil to help the developer pay for land acquisition and squatter compensation. This proves that the Gerakan’s assertion that they never paid money to the developer was false,” he said.

SOURCE: The Star

Selangor Dredging Bhd (SDB) will be making its debut on Penang shores, literally, with a breezy project known as By The Sea.

The foray into the island’s famed Batu Ferringhi beach comes just several months after the launch of its fourth project in Singapore.

The Kuala Lumpur-based developer has completed several projects in the Klang Valley.

“I believe I could do something different with this piece of land in Penang,” says SDB managing director Teh Lip Kim.

The move by the property developer is seen as a strategy to extend its branding into cities favoured by the expatriate community and Asia’s well-heeled, says the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) Penang chief Datuk Jerry Chan.

According to a survey by ECA International on 254 cities, George Town, the capital of Penang, is the eighth most liveable city in Asia, while Singapore is Asia’s most liveable city.

The project comprises 138 units of serviced suites spread over three blocks of between five and 11 storeys. There will also be a low-rise commercial block to provide basic amenities to the residents and the public. The site of the development is located between Bank Negara’s holiday complex and a community mosque.

The two hotels closest to it are the Hard Rock Hotel and Park Royal, both of which are just less than five minutes’ walk away in opposite directions.

Teh’s confidence in providing something different stems from the fact there will be two major focal points in the development that sits on 4.7 acres.

The first focal point of the RM230mil development is the beach which it will share with some of the island’s most popular five-star and boutique hotels – Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Spa and Resort, Golden Sands Resort, Hard Rock Hotel and the newly-refurbished Lone Pine.

Her second focal point is Sungai Satu, or One River, which flows through the land. The development will use the river as a border to separate the suites from the amenities block. The river, which flows past a cluster of squatters, will be cleaned and rehabilitated by the time it flows into By The Sea.

“The rubbish will be cleared and the water clarity improved considerably by the time it flows past the project and enters the sea,” she says. The river banks will be landscaped to add to the serenity and ambience of By The Sea.

Because beaches are public areas, the project will be set 60 m inland in order to create a park and a recreation area for residents.

“There will be value in the open space,” Teh says.

Priced at an average of RM1,200 per sq ft, By The Sea will be setting new benchmark in a predominantly tourist-centred area dotted by hotels. It is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016.

At that price and in today’s uncertain economic climate, Teh says she is targeting the Penang diaspora who would like to return to the island. The company is known for setting new benchmarks. In Puchong, the gated and guarded development AmanSari has set new standards in what was then a fairly ordinary township, while Ameera and Five Stones adds a new dimension to high-rise living in SS2, Petaling Jaya, an established township with predominantly landed terraces.

Teh’s main forte is landscaped housing, and this normally comes with a premium. She will use the same formula in the Penang property.

While SDB’s lifestyle concept developments may be new to the local Penang population, buyers in the Klang Valley and Singapore are familiar to its style and concept.

In Singapore, the company recently launched Hijauan on Cavenagh in District 9, one of the city state’s most prestigious areas and just minutes away from Orchard Road. The six-storey residential block sits on a half-acre plot and will have a total of 41 apartments with units ranging between 463 sq ft and 1,884 sq ft.

The units are priced between S$1.3mil and S$3.5mil each.

It will be built on the former Cavenagh Mansion land. Hijauan is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2015.

Cavenagh Road was named in honour of Maj-Gen William Orfeur Cavenagh, the last India-appointed governor of the Straits Settlements who governed from 1859 to 1867. Hijauan will have a combination of garden units, penthouse and typical units but all will enjoy the greenery in a coveted green lung within walking distance from Orchard Road and a tree-lined passageway besides the Istana and adjacent to 25,000 sq ft of lush state land.

The Istana is the official residence and working office for both the President and Prime Minister of Singapore and is also the place where they receive and entertain state guests.

A link bridge will connect Hijauan to Orchard’s Centrepoint shopping mall. Twelve of the 41 units have been sold.

Besides Hijauan, SDB’s other project in the city state includes Jia, OKIO and Gilstead Two. The company recently bought two acres in Singapore’s Pasir Panjang near the National University of Singapore.

With today’s concerns about eurozone, Teh says Singapore, like Britain, is seen as a safe haven for property investment, particularly if they are located in London’s zone 1 and zone 2.

“Similarly, I see the same in Singapore. For me, (whether it is Singapore, Klang Valley or Penang), I want to do something different,” says Teh.

Next year, Teh says SDB will launch a development in Cheras that will set tongues a wagging.

For now, her focus will be By The Sea and Singapore’s Hijauan.

SOURCE: The Star

What is it about the sea that attracts both developers and homebuyers? Along the Penang coastal road from Gurney Drive to Batu Ferringhi, condominiums, apartments and landed housing compete for buyers and tenants.

Landed units and villas sit snugly on hill slopes fronting narrow roads on one side while multi-storey high-rise projects front the sea or the beach with names like Skyhomes By the Beach, The Cove, Moonlight Bay and Springtide Residences.

Registered and chartered valuer C.A. Lim & Co proprietor Lim Chien Aun says in a telephone interview: “Everbody builds on the beach. We hardly talk about the inlands anymore. The exclusiveness (of being at the beachfront) is gone. We are like Hawaii many years ago.”

Most of the multi-storey beach and seafront high-rise developments are located in the Gurney and Tanjung Bungah area.

Valuers and property consultants contacted via the telephone say all of them have been sold.

While some of these developments have been built more than 10 years ago, there are also some new ones like Springtide and Skyhomes By the Beach.

Old or new, many of them are hardly-occupied.

They serve as holiday or weekend homes for well-to-do Malaysians. Many of them belong to foreigners who use them to escape from the cold winter in their countries.

What differentiates these developments from Selangor Dredging Bhd’s By The Sea is concept and size.

Many of Penang’s super condominiums have built-ups ranging from 2,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft. These were built years ago when there was a cap on density, but not size.

As a result, developers went overboard, with some units having two kitchens and two entrances, valuers say. The idea then was to enable buyers to sub-divide these units themselves.

Says Lim: “The ideal size of 1,500 sq ft were very few or were in older and medium-cost apartments and these were spread out here and there.”

Besides the scarcity of luxurious 1,200sq ft to 1,500sq ft units, lifestyle homes were a trend introduced by E&O’s Seri Tanjung Pinang several years ago.

Fin Chong, the former president of Master Builder Penang says: “The lifestyle concept came too early to Penang. Most of the buyers for E&O’s project came from their own database outside Penang.”

With an average price of RM1,200 per sq ft, valuers and consultants say the price may be prohibitive for local Penangites. Prices of By The Sea range from RM1.2mil to RM3.3mil.

Says Chong: “Penang has its share of millionaires. They fall into two categories. The retired ones can afford their RM5mil landed properties because they do not want to pay the monthly charges. Then there is the working millionaire who can buy their RM5mil properties and are willing to pay heftily every month to support a lifestyle.”

SDB’s By The Sea will the second beachfront suites in Batu Ferringhi, which is 5km away from Tanjung Bungah.

The first beachfront residential in Batu Ferringhi is Mahligai Baiduri, which has less than 50 units, says Henry Butcher Penang Shawn Ong.

“Those who want to live closer to town and all the amenities it has to offer will opt for Tanjung Bungah as Ferringhi comes across more as a holiday home where most of the hotels are located.

“Although the zoning is the same when it comes to resort properties, they are both commercial titles, Ferringhi will command a better value than Tanjung Bungah,” says Ong.

Besides SDB’s By The Sea, the other Kuala Lumpur-based developers which have made inroads on the island includes the YTL group. It will be building a niche development next to the famed E&O Hotel in the city. IJM group will have a mixed integrated project on reclaimed land near the bridge that connects the island to the peninsula.

While both of these projects front the sea, they will not have a beach. They will instead be known as sea-front properties.

IJM’s most recent launch The Light Collection 3 averages RM850 per sq ft while Seri Tanjung Quayside is priced between RM880 and RM1,100 per sq ft. Both of these are on reclaimed land.

SOURCE: The Star

AN assemblyman has asked the state government to review its existing requirements for developers to build low-cost or low medium-cost houses, to compel them to build more of such units.

Jason Ong Khan Lee (PKR-Kebun Bunga) said the current requirement was that developers build 30% of low or low-medium cost houses when they undertake projects to construct over 150 units in the medium to high-cost range.

“The 150 units should be reset to 100,” he said.

Ong added that developers also had another option to not build the houses by paying a premium of between RM30,000 and RM40,000 for each unit.

“The amount should also be reviewed, and the location of the projects taken into consideration as the cost per square feet differs. A new formula is needed,” he said.

He also suggested that a public housing fund be established where premiums collected could be channelled to help those who could not afford to own a house.

“It can either provide subsidy, loan with low interest rate or even interest-free to the needy,” he said.

He added that RM27.51mil was set aside in the state’s 2012 budget for 11 public low-cost housing projects.

“It would be good if the state also set an allocation for the purpose of the fund and provide poorer people the opportunity to own a house,” he said.

Source: The Star

There seems to be a lack of awareness among foreign investors about the property market in Malaysia, laments Kumar Tharmalingam, chief executive officer of Malaysia Property Incorporated (MPI).

And to remedy such a situation, a Malaysian delegation of distinguished property developers and non-profit government entities will participate in MIPIM Asia 2011 led by MPI, a Malaysian Government initiative set up to facilitate and promote investment for Malaysian real estate.

To be held at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre from Nov 15-17, MIPIM Asia 2011 is an international exhibition showcasing the projects and accomplishments of high-end property developers in Asia. Created in 2006 by Reed MIDEM — an organiser of international B2B events in the property and entertainment industries — MIPIM Asia is a top real estate event in the Asia-Pacific region.

Says Kumar, “Among the local developers for this exhibition are Sunway, IJM and the Selangor state investment arm PKNS. Non-profit government entities promoting investments in the country such as investKL, investPenang , 1MDB, Pemandu and Green Building Index representatives will also be joining us.

“Three main areas that we would like to promote in MIPIM Asia 2011 are Penang, the Greater Kuala Lumpur region and Johor, in particular, the Iskandar development region.

“Residential properties to be promoted, will have a starting price of RM1 million.”

Says MIPIM Asia senior project director William Young, “We had held MIPIM exhibition in Cannes, France, in March this year with a total of 18,590 participants from over 91 countries.”

“We believe that property market in Malaysia has great potential among (international) property investors. One of the main reasons is the good track record that this industry has achieved, especially in transparency, legal structure and the country’s stability, in terms of land value.”

Adds Kumar,“ It is not just Malaysian properties that we are promoting at this exhibition, but we want to bring foreign property investors to our country.”

He cites that presently, foreign property investment in the construction sector merely accounts for two percent.

“If we are able to attract foreign investors, they will not just have the capital to kick-start major projects in the country but also transfer their skills and technology to the local property scene. This in turn, will reduce the time and costs taken to complete a project,” points out Kumar.

The Malaysian delegation will have a trade pavilion designed by local architectural firm Hijjaz Kasturi Associates. Designed in the form of a “ribbon”, the pavilion represents Malaysia’s shared values and the high quality of development in diverse property choices.

SOURCE: The Star