Ewein Zenith is developing City of Dreams twin residential blocks in the Seri Tanjung Pinang neighbourhood.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday, the property developer and sheet metal fabricator said its 60%-owned subsidiary and CZ (previously Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd) had mutually terminated their sale and purchase agreement (SPA) for the 4.4252-acre (1.79ha) land in Section 1, Tanjung Pinang.

They also agreed to release and discharge each other from the rights, liabilities and obligation contained in the SPA subject to the terms and conditions in the termination agreement.

“The parties have mutually agreed to terminate the SPA because the land alienated is approximately 2 acres only which is a substantial reduction in the size of the subject land referred to in the SPA,” Ewein said.

The announcement did not explain why the size of the alienated land had been reduced.

Ewein said within three months, CZ, which owns the remaining 40% stake in Ewein Zenith II, would refund to Ewein Zenith II the deposit of RM16.2mil with interest at a mutually-agreed rate.

It was reported that CZ would receive a total of 44.5ha of freehold reclaimed land in Tanjung Pinang from the state government for undertaking the Penang mega project.

Ewein Zenith II signed the agreement to buy the 1.79ha parcel from CZ for RM162mil in December 2015.

The following month (January 2016), Ewein’s other 60%-owned property development subsidiary Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd inked a memorandum of agreement with CZ to grant Ewein Zenith the right to buy three parcels of land totalling 50 acres (20.23ha) at Tanjung Pinang at RM1,300 per sq ft.

The 50-acre land was earmarked for the development of the Wellness City of Dreams project, which includes a wellness resort and wellness apartments, among others.

The parties agreed for the said land to be further divided into ten parcels of land and that they would enter a separate SPA for each parcel..

Ewein noted that it had aggregated the proposal together with the proposed land acquisition inked in December 2015 and treated them as if they were one transaction, as both transactions were entered into with the same party within a period of 12 months.

Source: TheStar.com.my

An ongoing residential development by Publicity Development Sdn. Bhd. at Bertam. Located along Jalan Kubang Menerong, about 2km away from Bandar Putra Bertam. Driving to Penang bridge during off peak hours will take approximately 30 minutes.

This development comprises a mix of landed properties, with an indicative price starting from RM257,000 onwards:

• Single storey semi-detached (22 units)
• Single storey terrace (31 units)
• 1.5-storey semi-detached (12 units)
• 1.5-storey terrace (9 units)

Property Project : (to be confirmed)
Location : Bertam
Property Type : Semi-D & Terrace
Tenure: Freehold
Total Units : 74
Indicative Price : RM257,000 onwards
Developer : Premium Flame Development Sdn. Bhd.

Location Map:

Newly proposed affordable housing by Pegasus Homes Sdn. Bhd. at Bukit Tengah. Strategically located along Jalan Bukit Tengah, just a stone’s throw away from Bukit Tengah roundabout. It is only 5 km away from Penang Bridge and Bukit Mertajam Town Center.

This development comprises a 33-storey condominium, offering 650 affordable units. Estimated selling price is around RM250,000.

The project is still pending for approval, more details to be available upon official launch.

Property Project : (to be confirmed)
Location : Bukit Tengah, Bukit Mertajam
Property Type : Affordable housing
Tenure: Freehold
Total Units : 650
Indicative Price : RM250,000 (estimated price for affordable housing)
Developer : Pegasus Homes Sdn. Bhd.

Location Map:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak today expressed the government commitment to continue to focus on providing more affordable housing for the low- and middle-income groups.

He said the concept of comprehensive and holistic development was most necessary to ensure that these groups had the capacity to own equity.

“It is for this reason that I recently changed the original criteria to the concept of well-being transformation. When we emphasise well-being transformation, it involves the question of property ownership.

“For me, property ownership is more meaningful than equity ownership for an individual because land is a substantial asset of value to our families.

“As such, we see housing development not solely from the perspective of an economic project but in the concept of development of the people and development of bumiputras based on the well-being concept,” he said during a visit to the Casa Anggun housing project in Sungai Nibong here.

The second phase of the project involved the construction of 340 units of medium-cost houses of 800 to 900ft² at the starting sale price of RM324,000, twenty percent cheaper than the market price, and which were sold out in two days.

Penang Federal Action Council chairman Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Osman, Penang Barisan Nasional chairman Teng Chang Yeow, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya and Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican were also present during the visit.

Najib said the housing agenda was accorded high priority now because the people wanted and desired affordable houses.

“From the time I took over the leadership of the country in 2009, we assessed what the people wanted and realised that they wanted affordable houses. Affordable houses are close to the people’s hearts. As such, we committed ourselves to building one million affordable houses in the whole country,” he said.

Najib said the efforts to implement what the people wanted, covered various levels, including identifying land, either government or private, and cooperation from government agencies, for example in Penang, from JKP Sdn Bhd and the Penang Regional Development Authority (Perda).

The Prime Minister also said that government would consider an application by JKP Sdn Bhd to build 10,000 units of affordable houses on two pieces of land owned by the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry in Gelugor and Batu Maung here.

“If the Cabinet gives its approval, the project will become a reality. This is what we are doing. We want all groups to benefit,” he said.

Earlier, Zainal Abidin, in his speech, said he hoped that the government could give special consideration to the application to build 10,000 units of affordable houses for the well-being of the people of Penang.

Source: The Sun Daily

What passes for affordable housing in Malaysia is “not affordable”, said Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim.

“Even the World Bank has characterised our houses as severely unaffordable.

“Last year, only 35% of the new housing supply in the market were affordable, and the year before that, the supply of affordable houses was 75%, and the remaining were residences costing above RM500,000,” he said.

Muhammad Ibrahim said housing problems were therefore not about access to credit.

“It is an issue of not having enough income and houses being too expensive.

“As accountants, we look at the problem in a dispassionate way. We look at data and see that the problem is not about access to credit and we must have the courage to say it loudly and clearly to the public,” he added.

Muhammad was speaking at the 2017 National Conference of Public Sector Accountants at a hotel here yesterday.

He told the 450 public sector accountants in the two-day conference to be bold and courageous as civil servants in responding to negative public issues raised by stakeholders.

He urged them to resist “pandering to popular opinion and short-termism”, a financial jargon defining an excessive focus on short-term results at the expense of long-term priorities.

BNM has taken a critical stance over the affordable housing market in recent months.

Last month, the central bank highlighted data from the National Property Information Centre showing that less than 30% of new housing launches in 2015-2016 were for those priced less than RM250,000, compared with 70% in 2008-2009.

Financial simulations in BNM’s 2016 Annual Report released in March showed that people earning less than RM3,000 could only finance a home worth RM176,000, those earning RM5,000 and below could afford up to RM283,000 and those earning RM10,000 and below, RM515,000.

The report stressed that almost three quarters of the current supply of houses for sale in the country were not affordable.

Source: TheStar.com.my