The Boon Siew group is not involved in the purchase of a piece of land that the state of Penang had alienated to a private company with the mandate to undertake RM6.34bil worth of infrastructure projects.
In a statement, the Boon Siew group said one of its shareholders was approached pertaining to the purchase of land measuring 22.92 acres from Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZC), but no decision has been made by him in respect of his involvement in the transaction, as all matters are at a very preliminary stage.
Three days ago, StarBiz reported that the Boon Siew group had acquired the land at RM845 per square foot for RM843.64mil, a transaction that would clear some amount of uncertainty on the financing of the RM6.34bil infrastructure projects.
The infrastructure projects comprise three toll-free highways on the island and an undersea tunnel between Butterworth and Gurney Drive. Work on the first of the three highways is due to start in September this year.
However, financing has been an issue because the project is to be done on a land-swap basis. The state will alienate a total of 110 acres of reclaimed land in stages to CZC in return for the company carrying out the projects, including the feasibility study and detailed design.
The undersea tunnel project has been awarded to China Railway Construction Co and is slated to start only in 2023.
However, the job for the first of the three highways, which is a 5.7-km stretch worth RM815mil, has been awarded to the joint venture of Vertice Bhd and Vizione Holdings Bhd
The other two highways are to start next year and the year after. According to reports, the RM6.34bil project is due for ground-breaking, with the commencement of the highway project happening by the end of next month.
Source: TheStar.com.my
This is a big screw up by MBPP, for failing to control over-building. So it seems even at RM845 psf it is considered too expensive for the land in this area. Why? Because there have built too many homes, prices are coming down, so land price will have to come down too, and as a result, there wont be enough money from selling land to build roads. MBPP should control whats being built here, so that prices can remain solid, so that land price too can be solid, in order for road builders to obtain enough proceeds from selling land to build roads.
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@Jean
Hello??? If properties too expensive, then average people cannot afford it lah! Its not fair then!!!
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Buyer???
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@cartoon
Well, you dont really need “affordable” homes in this area. State gov should develop this area as prime exclusive, while keeping bayab baru/sg. ara/batu kawan for affordable for the convenience of the factory workers. Simple.
A good example is i-santorini, there were simply not enough buyers for 300k gov-controlled units which require stricter qualification criteria, while those open-market units which cost 100k more were all snapped up fast.
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Ya. This area reserved for millionaires. State gov should pay more attention to this group of people.
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Malaysia’s economy is going downhill since May last year. I cannot blame Boon Siew for being cautious.
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@Brian
I think state gov should pay attention to everyone, not just the rich. Build more affordable homes in areas which need them, more upscale homes in areas which need them. Reclaim industrial land in the south, that makes sense, as thats where MNCs like to locate their factories.
The whole socio-economic model must sync with the states long term objective in order to make everyone happy, no matter which social strata one belongs to.
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The Penang state government’s planning for affordable housing is foolish! They have implemented a set of rules requiring property developers to build luxury apartments while also providing a portion of affordable housing units. This has led developers, in an effort to cut costs, to often construct luxury apartments and affordable housing in the same area. This severely affects urban planning and the city’s aesthetics. In the long run, it also creates a series of regional issues and social conflicts!
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@Lim
You shouldn’t give all the blame to Penang state gov.
That’s the vision from Madani gov to actually achieve the balance of community regardless of poor rich stay together.
We shouldn’t discriminate poor people same time government is helping those poor family to at least own a house in urban area. It’s moving towards right direction now. Hopefully that’s more Madani housing up next.
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Why are we even talking about affordable homes on this thread about gurney drive?? No developer is going to build affordable homes here, trust.me. Hahaha.
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State government should distinguish those poor people and richer one; those good projects at prime land should allocated for rich foreign investor while poor people can stay in Sg Ara, Relau, Teluk Kumbar, Ayer Itam. Don’t spoil the image building low cost apartments, cos nobody bother to maintain the poor apartments.
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Think no government in anywhere able to strike a balance on making a community regardless of poor n rich for staying together.
Just look at HK or Singapore or any country you name it, do there able to achieve that?
Else we have to follow the rules of the game, regret to say just face the reality.
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@millionaire
Because any sane mind won’t do it.
You expect someone who pays millions for a unit, then outside his condo, a lot of car parking at the roadside blocking his entry because the affordable unit next to them doesn’t give enough parking lot.
People are just naive and ignorant of the truth that these rich people pay more because they don’t want to breathe the same air as the peasants.
Just take a look at Imperial, Havana, Fairview, and Oneforesta, I bet you won’t see your CEO staying next door as your neighbour.
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