Brisk sale of Plaza Damas 3

From left: Maximerge Capital Sdn Bhd CEO Terence Yooi Sing Keen, Michelle Won and Mayland group general manager Yap Boon Teck with a mock cheque at the signing ceremony.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Land Properties Sdn Bhd (Mayland) registered sales of about RM160mil, or a take-up rate of 95%, for its 72 shop offices in Plaza Damas 3 project in Sri Hartamas.

The one-to three-storey shop offices were soft launched last week.

Bulk buyers Maximerge Capital Sdn Bhd and Koperasi Pendidikan Islam Malaysia Bhd took up 18 units worth RM45mil and eight units worth RM20mil respectively.

Marketing manager Michelle Won said other purchasers were from the group's existing clientele.

“Some of the purchasers are tenants from our Plaza Damas 1 and 2 project,” she said at the signing of agreements with Maximerge and Koperasi Pendidikan yesterday.

Won said Plaza Damas 3 would also comprise 1,500 serviced apartments that would be launched in three months.

“Collectively, the entire Plaza Damas 3 project will have a gross development value (GDV) of RM800mil,” she said.

Plaza Damas 3, located within a 15km radius covering Sri Hartamas, Mont' Kiara, Damansara Heights and Kenny Hills, would be linked to the earlier phases via an overhead bridge link, Won said.

Mayland will next be launching its Sri Putramas 3 condominiums in Jalan Kuching and a residential project in Johor Baru.

“The (Sri Putramas 3) project will have a GDV of about RM300mil, and we plan to launch that in three months as well,” she said.

“We will be launching our residential project comprising 400 townhouses in Johor Baru,” Won added, but did not specify a date.

Won also said the group was in the final stages of completing the purchase of 10 acres in the Klang Valley.

Mayland had under 500 acres of undeveloped land, mainly in the Klang Valley and Johor Baru, she added.

By The Star

Real estate cycle seen peaking this year

KUALA LUMPUR: The country’s real estate cycle is expected to peak in late 2008 as the pace of rental increases begin to lag price increases, particularly in the high-end property segment in the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

OSK Investment Bank said compression of rental yields from high-end condominiums could prompt existing owners to lock in capital gains in anticipation of more new luxury units hitting the market at a time when the real estate cycle was peaking.

Its latest property market outlook report indicated that additional supply of condominiums in KLCC would make it more difficult for investors to rent out their residential units.

“If most buyers are mere speculators and investors, risk of a potential bubble burst in KLCC condos will be rather high by late 2008,” OSK said, adding that the current upward trend in the local real estate cycle may begin to taper off in 2009 when more properties hit the market.

It was reported in February that prices of upmarket condominiums may reach a new high of RM3,000 a sq ft this year as new products hit a niche market driven mainly by foreign demand for local luxury units which are deemed one of the cheapest in the region.

According to property consultancy Knight, Frank, Ooi and Zaharin Sdn Bhd, residential properties in KLCC had fetched between RM1,300 a sq ft and RM2,000 a sq ft last year (2007) while rentals ranged between RM5.50 a sq ft and RM6.50 a sq ft.

The rising prices of these top notch homes, essentially, translates into lower rental yields as prices advance at a quicker pace than rental hikes.

Meanwhile, foreign demand for high-end real estate here may dip on investors’ cautious sentiments surrounding the country’s new political landscape following the recent general elections.

But the slower take-up rate for luxury properties should not be viewed as an across-the-board phenomenon as foreign individual buyers, experts said, were still scouting for local assets.

A downside in demand for larger transactions like en bloc commercial property acquisitions by overseas institutional buyers is, however, possible as investors adopt a wait-and-see attitude to safeguard their portfolios.

“Foreign direct investment is going to be sustained but definitely there will be a wait-and-see attitude in certain industries especially on the bigger ticket purchase items like en-bloc sales.

“Foreign individual investors are still coming in,” real estate consultancy Zerin Properties chief executive officer Previndran Singhe told The Edge on the sidelines of a forum discussing the impact of the recent national elections on the country’s real estate sector.

The forum was organised by the Malaysian chapter of the International Real Estate Federation or better known as Fiabci.

Speaking at the event earlier, Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute chief executive officer and director Datuk Dr Michael Yeoh said foreign investors were still deliberating on the Malaysia’s investment climate following the unprecedented outcome of the recent elections.

“We cannot exclude any possibility,” Yeoh said.

By The EDGE Malaysia (by Chong Jin Hun)

Dijaya's Tan buys more Sunrise shares

TAN Sri Danny Tan Chee Sing, a major shareholder of property developer Dijaya Corp Bhd, has been buying more shares of Sunrise Bhd.

Tan bought another eight million shares on March 26, bringing his total stake to 6.91 per cent of rival Sunrise.

Tan's interest in Sunrise is via Phoenixflex Sdn Bhd.

Tan emerged a substantial shareholder in Sunrise in October 2004 and has since been accumulating shares. Yesterday, Sunrise's shares fell three sen to close at RM2.07.

By New Straits Times