OFFICE TOWERS: Chiu (right) pointing out certain aspects of the proposed commercial office development to Azlan after signing the sales and purchase agreement for the Putrajaya land
PUTRAJAYA Holdings Sdn Bhd, the master developer of Malaysia's administrative capital, has sold a parcel of land in Putrajaya to Bliss Avenue Property Development Sdn Bhd for RM23.7 million to develop into a business, residential and office centre.
Bliss Avenue is a wholly-owned unit of Malaysia Land Properties Sdn Bhd, which specialises in developing condominiums, service apartments and office buildings.
Malaysia Land Properties in turn is the Malaysian unit of Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed Far East Consortium, a property developer in Hong Kong and owner of the Sheraton Subang, Sheraton Labuan, Dorsett Regency Kuala Lumpur hotels and the Hartamas shopping centre.
Malaysia Land Properties vice-chairman Tan Sri David Chiu said the company will build 14-storey office towers and commercial lots on the land with construction due to begin in four months at a construction cost of RM100 million.
Tenants include government ministries and agencies as well as private companies occupying over a gross floor area of 39,105 sq m.
"The project will be financed by internally generated cash and bank borrowings and we want to keep the project for the long term by leasing it out at RM4-RM5 per sq ft," Chiu told reporters in Putrajaya yesterday after inking the deal.
Putrajaya Holdings chief executive officer Azlan Abdul Karim said the land transaction is the third commercial land sale in Putrajaya and the first sale to a local firm.
"We need to bring in private property players to build commercial units so that Putrajaya will be evenly developed and not become a purely government project," said Azlan.
Azlan said the company cannot develop the 5,000ha Putrajaya alone and need to bring in private property developers either local or foreign and forge alliances either on a joint venture basis or a straight buy and sell agreement.
"By doing so, serious buyers can come in and we have had enquiries from US investors," said Azlan.
The land measuring 6,300 sq m is located opposite the Palace of Justice and next to the city's town council, the Putrajaya Corp, in Precint 3.
Azlan said the company has identified 121ha of land in Putrajaya which can be developed into commercial projects, but it plans to sell 10 per cent of the land gradually and in small portions and has not set any time frame in doing so.
"So far we have sold 2.4ha of land worth RM90 million and construction is on-going," said Azlan.
Since its establishment in 1995, Putrajaya has developed 70 per cent of government office buildings with a gross built-up area of almost 30 million sq ft and six commercial buildings with a gross built-up area of about four million sq ft.
Putrajaya Holdings has to date built 70 per cent of the government quarters comprising 22,000 home units.
It had just started building public and commercial units with an initial launch of 25,000 units.
Azlan said the development of Putrajaya is similar to Kuala Lumpur's, where there is no time limit for it to be fully developed and is entirely dependent on market forces.
Putrajaya Holdings' shareholders are Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Kumpulan Wang Amanah Negara.
Meanwhile, Chiu said Malaysia Land Properties has 10 projects under planning and construction stages in Malaysia, worth RM2.5 billion, to be carried out over the next 18 months. This involves 20,000 units of residential and retail properties.
To date, Malaysia Land Properties has a total landbank of 202.4ha most of which are located in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru.
On another matter, Azlan said Putrajaya Holdings has not received any letter of offer from UBG Bhd which is interested to buy Putrajaya Holdings' 20 per cent-stake in Putrajaya Perdana Bhd. Putrajaya Perdana is Putrajaya Holdings' construction arm.
"We have not decided ... and any offer must first go to the board," said Azlan.
By New Straits Times (by Zaidi Isham Ismail)
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