Work on the RM200.3 million Gurney Wharf project is expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year after delays in the project due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

State executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo told the Penang state legislative assembly today that the planning permission and building plan for the project was submitted to PLANMalaysia Seang on May 11 and July 15 respectively.

“The planning permission was approved on principle with minor amendments on July 12,” he said in reply to a question regarding the progress of the project by Lee Chun Kit (PH – Pulau Tikus).

The local government, housing and town and country planning committee chairman said the appointed consultants for the project have also submitted an application for approval of landscaping works on July 2 and this is still under consideration.

“The Public Works Department has been appointed as the superintendent officer on August 6 and as a technical adviser for the project since this is a fully funded state social project,” he said.

He said the consultants are preparing a tender document for the project and it is now being finalised.

“The open tender is expected to be called this month,” he said.

He said once the main contractor is appointed through the open tender, works will start by the fourth quarter of this year.

The construction period of the project is expected to take about three years but the state has also added a conditional one year as the defect liability period until the fourth quarter of 2024.

“The whole project is fully funded by the state government at an estimated cost of RM200.3 million,” he said.

The project is divided into two phases where phase one is made up of a children’s playground, a skate park, a viewing deck, public toilets, a promenade, hawker kiosks, retail area, convenience stores, surau, refuse centre, a multilevel carpark and a recreational and landscaped park.

Jagdeep said phase one of the project is expected to complete by the fourth quarter of 2022 when it will be open to the public.

As for phase two, he said it consists of a portion of the landscaped and recreational park, additional hawker kiosks, public toilets, carparks and a drainage and irrigation system that is expected to complete by the fourth quarter of 2023.

The state appointed seven consultants that included architects, engineers and an environmental consultant to manage the project.

The Gurney Wharf project is located on a 40 acres site of reclaimed land on the Gurney Drive foreshore.

It is part of the total 131.09 acres of reclaimed land off Gurney Drive that was handed over to the state government progressively.

Reclamation works along the Gurney Drive foreshore started in 2016 and reclamation of 131.09 acres (53ha) of land was completed in September 2019.

The reclamation work was conducted in accordance with a concession agreement signed between the Penang state government and Tanjung Pinang Development Sdn Bhd (TPD), a subsidiary of Eastern & Oriental Berhad.

Under the agreement, TPD was to reclaim the land at its own cost and handover 131.09 acres of reclaimed land along the Gurney foreshore to the state government by December 2022.

In earlier news reports, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow had said the Gurney Wharf project was expected to cost RM176 million.

Source: MalayMail.com

Proposed residential development by Asas Dunia Berhad at Sungai Bakap. Located on 29 acres of land along Jalan Sungai Duri, immediately opposite Taman Seruling Emas. It is about 5km away from Penang-Kedah border, a 5-minute drive from North-South Expressway Jawi Toll Plaza.

The development will feature 313 units of single-storey cluster houses and a community hall. Part of the land will be reserved for future developments.

This project is still pending approval. Details to be available upon project launch.

Project Name : (to be confirmed)
Location : Sungai Bakap
Property Type : Residential
Total Units: 313
Built-up Size: (to be confirmed)
Indicative Price: (to be confirmed)
Developer: Asas Dunia Berhad

DISCLAIMER: This article is solely based on research done using publicly available data. This is not an advertisement. Any claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a project or service should be verified with the developer, provider, or party in question.

The Malaysia Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) has launched the MIEA Landlord Insurance policy which will help landlords gain independence against the risk of runaway tenants, rent arrears together with potential damages to their asset or property when faced with bad tenants.

“As property agents, there is not much agents can do to help landlords with errant tenants except to pre-qualify them with the resources available to us. Today, MIEA is proud to say that agents can provide a second level of protection for their clients through this policy,“ said MIEA president Chan Ai Cheng in a statement yesterday.

The MIEA landlord insurance coverage will include:

• Reimbursement of loss of rental income due to tenant runaway.
• Legal expenses for letter of demand.
• Pay for amount incurred for losses or damages to contents due to malicious acts of your tenant.

The policy also cover additional benefits such as:

1. Reimbursement of cleaning services charges incurred when the contents of the premises are destroyed or damaged by tenants;
2. Reimbursement of costs incurred for repairing or replacing doors, locks, access card and Keys following the loss or damage caused by tenants;
3. Reimbursement of amount incurred for the replacement of glasses (including shower door and windows) due to damage caused by tenants;
4. Reimbursement of amount incurred for services such as plumbing, drainage, air-conditioning and toilet malfunction due to damage caused by tenants; and
5. Reimbursement of losses due to theft or burglary committed by tenants.

Chan further explained that this policy was designed and developed to provide the minimum coverage with a minimal annual premium of RM280 per unit (less than RM24 per month).

“We want the real estate profession to grow and be at par with other countries. Our motivation of introducing this policy is to protect the public and to provide an environment for agents to be competitive in enhancing their services, which will set them apart from others. This will augur well for the profession and for the Malaysian property market. Both landlords and agents can also sleep better with this additional protection which will step in should untoward losses occur,” said Chan.

MIEA’s insurance partner Howden Insurance Brokers has designed this policy with the mandate from MIEA.

Meanwhile, MIEA is also concerned at the new trends in the property market. In most of the developing and developed countries, the enforcement on those who breach the law and carry out estate agency practice illegally or under the guise of doing a different trade is highly regulated.

To take two examples, a non-real estate firm is set up as a “consultants” usually to market projects for developers and collect fees for introducing buyers which by law is not allowed (Section 22C ACT 242). Secondly, tech firms or new start-ups are now part of a larger community of those who are carrying out real estate transactions and operating without registering themselves with the Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and property managers (Bovaep). It is important to note that all who wish to practise any form of estate agency must be registered with the Bovaep, the regulators of the profession.

MIEA CEO & past president K. Soma Sundram highlighted that these tech companies were told that they are breaking the law, they guise as insurance brokers to bypass the law thus avoiding enforcement by the authorities. Their modus operandi is to attract tenants by not collecting deposits from them and ask landlords to take up an insurance scheme to protect them against tenant.

“The premiums they collect for this policy are far higher than the actual cost of the premiums to be paid. For example, they collect one month rental and after deducting the premiums they use the balance as their fees. This is clearly a strategy to bypass the Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers Act which only allows registered agents to collect and hold deposits and collect fees for service rendered in a real estate transaction.”

It is also illegal to collect any monies and deposit such monies in a company’s current account and not in a clients account as required by law. This goes against the very grain of public policy. This hurts the industry indirectly in that the landlords pay a lot more than the fees payable to agents.

“MIEA requests that the Finance Minister and Bovaep as regulators make a serious effort in managing this concern and to look at the ‘lacuna’ that exists within ACT 242 on matters of illegal brokers.”

Source: TheSunDaily.my

Utropolis Batu Kawan

Paramount Corp Bhd hopes to sustain the strong sales momentum with speedier sales conversion and project approvals as lockdown restrictions ease, says its group chief executive officer Jeffrey Chew.

He, however, warned that the property market will be weighed down by continued economic uncertainties caused by the prolonged pandemic situation which could result in cautious household spending, reduced business expenditure and a weakened employment market.

Overall, Chew cautioned that the business environment is expected to remain challenging for the rest of 2021.

Having said that he believes that the low-interest-rate environment and the stamp duty exemption under the homeownership campaign will remain crucial to incentivise property purchases.

With that in mind, Paramount said its property division has lined up a few projects for the second half of this year in Klang Valley, namely The Atrium and Arinna Kemuning Utama, it said in a statement last week.

Paramount posted a net profit of RM1.62 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2021 (2Q FY21) compared to a net loss of RM4.01 million a year ago.

The group attributed the improved profitability to the low base of last year, coupled with higher revenue due to containment measures implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Its revenue for the quarter almost doubled to RM127.45 million from RM64.2 million a year ago.

For the first half (1H FY21), its net profit was RM3.92 million compared with RM462.63 million boosted by a divestment gain a year ago. Its six-month revenue rose almost 50 per cent to RM279.26 million from RM186.31 million previously.

Paramount said for 1H FY21, it achieved property sales of RM309 million, which was 62 per cent higher against RM191 million in the corresponding period last year.

The group achieved higher property sales despite having launched fewer property units in 1H FY21 (217 units) as compared with the launches in 1H FY20 (548 units).

The property division achieved higher sales from projects such as Bukit Banyan in Kedah, ATWATER in Selangor and Utropolis Batu Kawan in Penang.

Find out more about Paramount Property’s It’s Real massive deal!

Paramount has unbilled sales of RM1.03 billion as at June 30, 2021, providing some form of visibility on its cash flow in the near term. However, it said that the pace at which the unbilled sales can be converted into billings would depend on the construction progress of the projects.

Source: NST Online

Most hotels here are waiting till mid-September to re-open as Penang is expected to have by then 100% of its population getting at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose.

Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) Penang Chapter chairman K. Raj Kumar said although hotels are allowed to re-open now, not many were taking in guests yet.

“I did expect there to be an increase in guests this weekend due the long weekend but some hotels have not reopened. Along the beaches, only a few resorts are open. Most will only reopen next month,” he said.

Raj Kumar said this was because overhead costs was high with too few guests at the moment.

“It is not worth it for hotels to open when there are only a few bookings as the occupancy rate has not picked up.

“We believe when the second dose is given to all, everyone will be more comfortable about staying in hotels,” he said.

The government had announced that tourism activities involving homestays and hotels within the same state for those fully vaccinated is allowed for states under Phase Two and beyond of the National Recovery Plan.

Association of Tourism Attractions Penang chairman Ch’ng Huck Theng said people were still being cautious.

“The vaccination process is ongoing and we will reach herd immunity soon. Local spots like cafes are still not allowing dine-in as well,” he said.

At Penang Hill, hikers are allowed to take the train down, since the activity is allowed as an outdoor recreation, but local tourists cannot take the train up for a leisurely visit.

“We have noticed there are fewer hikers than before and we do not let them take the train up, only allowing them to use it to make their way down from the top of the hill or the midway point,” said Penang Hill Corporation (PHC) general manager Datuk Cheok Lay Leng.

He said the rule was set because it was hard to differentiate between hikers and tourists.

“There are people who have tried to go up but we do not let them,” he said.

M Summit 191 Executive Hotel Suites general manager Moh Wei Ken said the property secured a 45% occupancy for the long weekend by offering attractive packages for fully vaccinated guests.

“We are confident this number will pick up in the next few days from walk-ins and last-minute bookings,” said Moh.

Source: TheStar.com.my