Tower B of The Tamarind executive apartments by Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O) has received an encouraging response from buyers with 60% of the units having been taken up within two weeks of its launch in early December.

E&O marketing and sales general manager (Penang), Christina Lau, said The Tamarind has attracted a large number of Penangites as well as a sizeable number of buyers from the northern states. It has also attracted Malaysians from other parts of the country and foreigner buyers.

“Judging from the promising response, we expect to close more deals in the next few weeks,” Lau said in a press statement.

The Tamarind Tower B houses 552 condominium units of between 1,047 sq ft and 1,772 sq ft in built-up area. The average selling price is RM765 psf, and prices start at RM757,000 for a unit.

“The Tamarind attracts a good mix of owner-occupiers and investors, with strong interest registered among young executives and families,” Lau said.

This 6.9-acre freehold high-rise development has an estimated gross development value of RM900 million. It comprises two blocks of 33-storey buildings with a total of 1,104 units of a 3-bedroom design. The smallest unit has a built-up area of 1,047 sq ft. The Tamarind Tower B is expected to be completed in 2019.

The Tamarind Tower A, which was launched in June 2015, is 95% sold. The average selling price for Tower A is RM725 psf.

The Tamarind’s facilities include a private, one-acre waterscaped beach, free-form swimming and wading pools, jogging track, gym and yoga centre, multipurpose hall and playground.

It is located close to the Straits Quay retail marina, Tesco hypermarket, Straits Quay Convention Centre, Straits Green Public Park, Penang Performing Arts Centre and a 1.6km seafront promenade.

Commenting on market conditions, Lau noted the long-term nature of property investment and that soft market conditions may present an opportune time to buy properties.

“We believe that demand remains in niche locations and for projects by developers offering strong concept, branding and delivery,” she said.

Source: TheEdgeProperty.com.my

LRT across the sea to mainland in the works

There are plans for a fourth link between Penang island and the mainland – a light rail transit (LRT) track across the sea.

The proposed link will have the LRT trains travelling on rails built near the Penang Bridge.

It will connect Gelugor on the island and the Prai Industrial Estate on the mainland before continuing northwards to Penang Sentral in Butterworth.

At Gelugor, there will be an interchange with the proposed Komtar-Bayan Lepas LRT line.

The line on the mainland will take the trains through the Prai factory area, along the Jalan Baru dual carriageway beginning with Taman Supreme and ending at Penang Sentral, where the ferry terminal and KTM train station are located.

“The link will be a lot narrower than Penang Bridge.

“But we will follow the bridge’s height so that the sea route will remain clear,” SRS Consortium Sdn Bhd project director Szeto Wai Loong told reporters yesterday.

There are currently two bridges linking the island and mainland, while a 6.5km undersea tunnel had been proposed to connect Gurney Drive to Bagan Ajam.

The proposed fourth link and several other highway, LRT, monorail and tram routes, which are part of the RM27bil Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP), received the thumbs up from the state government yesterday.

Szeto said the plans for these state-approved transport links would now be submitted to the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) before it is publicly displayed in June.

“People can give feedback and we will factor significant issues raised into the final plan,” he said, adding that the construction of the George Town-Butterworth LRT, which is the name given to the fourth link, would probably start around 2026.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who was also present, said the state had yet to approve the proposed land reclamation in the south of the island which are meant to fund the PTMP.

Source: TheStar.com.my

The Penang executive council today gave the green light to Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) project delivery partner SRS Consortium Sdn Bhd for the railway and highway schemes that include a rail line from Komtar to the airport and the Pan Island Link.

SRS tabled the plans to the state exco this morning.

The railway scheme covers both the island and mainland, with one LRT and two monorail lines on the island, one LRT line across the sea linking both sides of Penang, and a bus rapid transit (BRT) system.

Local government exco member Chow Kon Yeow said the priority for the railway scheme will be the light rail transit (LRT) line linking Komtar in the city centre of George Town and the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas.

This project, he said, would be Phase One of the railway scheme and treated as a priority project.

“With the green light given by the state, SRS will proceed to propose the railway scheme to SPAD (Land Public Transport Commission), which is the authority in charge of rail transport.

“SRS will consult with SPAD for its guidance and advice concerning the proposal to build a railway system in Penang,” he told a press conference in Komtar today.

He said the state has also approved the highway scheme proposed by the consortium.

The priority highway project, he said, is the Pan Island Link, which connects Gurney Drive and Bayan Lepas.

“The alignment was also presented to the exco today. The next step by SRS is to conduct the DEIA (detailed environmental impact assessment) for this proposed project,” he said.

Project manager Szeto Wei Loong from SRS said the next stage after securing the state’s approval is to engage the public and inform them of the alignments of the projects.

“We are going to do a preliminary detailed design for the Phase One LRT line, which will be submit to SPAD for the railway scheme approval.

“A condition for approval is giving SPAD the overall masterplan for the railway network, which the state has approved this morning.

“We will liaise with SPAD regarding this masterplan submission, and this will take another six months. Once ready, it will be up for public display.

“At the same time, we will also be submitting the DEIA for the LRT line. We hope by the third quarter of next year all the railway scheme will be approved,” he said.

For the Pan Island Link, Szeto said SRS will submit the DEIA, which will take another six months for studies to be conducted and completed, to the Department of Environment for approval.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state have not approved any land reclamation yet or other components of the PTMP, such as water taxis and cable cars.

SRS has proposed to reclaim two or three islands in the south of Penang island to finance the RM27 billion masterplan.

The manmade islands would be auctioned off to pay for the transport projects in the masterplan, if all federal approvals are obtained.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets.com

S P Setia Bhd’s Penang property sales are expected to contribute RM399 million to the company’s group revenue for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2016 (FY16).

“This is in line with Penang’s annual contribution of about 10% of group sales. The sales revenue from here would come from two launches next year, which carry a total gross development value (GDV) of about RM670 million,” the group’s northern region general manager Ng Han Seong told The Edge Financial Daily recently.

He said sales target for FY15, which has been extended by two months due to the revised financial year ending period, is RM409 million.Ng said the deferred Solok Slim project featuring residential condominums with a GDV of between RM500 million and RM600 million will be launched in April next year.

The project was initially slated for launch in the final quarter of 2015, but a delay in advertising permit and developer licence application arising from the recently enforced Strata Management Act 2013 resulted in its postponement. The other project, consisting of 30 semi-detached units in Setia Pearl Island priced from RM2.5 million onwards, with a GDV of RM70 million, will be launched during Chinese New Year in February, he said.

Ng said the group, which has a land bank of 150 acres (60.7ha) in Penang with a GDV of RM3.5 billion that could last it for 10 years, is still actively looking for land, but mainly on the island. “Penang is a very exciting place and the state government is implementing new infrastructure with the Penang Transport Master Plan. Penang is an important market for us. We are definitely not going to scale down although land is scarce.

“We will continue introducing developments that cater to different income groups,” he said, adding that the group’s development of 459 low-cost apartments with a GDV of RM19 million in Balik Pulau would be completed in the first quarter of 2017.

Meanwhile, the group expects to see higher contribution from its Setia Spice project, which features a hotel, indoor stadium, convention centre, aquatic club, retail shops and a food and beverage podium, from FY17. “The project, which is a redevelopment of the former Penang International Sports Arena, will be completed by the end of next year. We expect contributions to come in from FY17.

“Construction of the 450-room four-star hotel will begin in the first quarter of next year and should finish in 2019,” he said.

Source: TheEdgeMarkets.com

Malaysians are finding it increasingly harder to get housing loans as banks have less money available to lend out, financial expert Gary Chua said today.

Chua, who heads financial education firm Smart Financing, said the housing loan approval rate, which was at least 65 per cent about seven years ago, has been showing a downward trend this year with banks rejecting a higher number of applications.

He said statistics show that the 53 per cent of loan approvals by banks in the first quarter slid to just 47 per cent for residential property loan approvals in the third quarter.

“To me this is one of the key points affecting the market as well, where the banks are tightening their belts and consumers are finding it difficult to get financing from the banks to fund their dream homes, so this would definitely get even tougher moving forward,” he said during PropertyGuru’s Property Market Outlook 2016 forum here.

Chua said that banks in Malaysia are suffering from low liquidity as they have lent out most of their money to Malaysians.

“And at the moment, at the industry, it’s over 90 per cent, meaning 90 per cent of the banks’ money have been lent out to consumers. That means banks are having difficulty or stress in terms of getting more money to lend out,” he explained.

“For the banks, mortgage or housing loan is the lowest yielding business to them, hence if they have limited funds to lend out to consumers, housing loans will be the first one that they will pull back,” he said, comparing housing loans to the banks’ products with higher profit margins such as credit cards and car loans.

Chua said first-time house-buyers with monthly incomes of RM5,000 also face challenges in securing loans, as banks impose a 60 per cent lending cap, which means they can only borrow a total of up to RM3,000 per month for items such as credit cards, car loan, mortgages.

Noting that current laws require banks to set aside 4 per cent of their funds and deposit this reserve in Bank Negara Malaysia’s accounts, Chua suggested that this figure be brought down as it was done in 1998 and 2008 to enable the banks to have more cash to lend out.

He also said bad loans are at a “historical low” as only 1.2 per cent of borrowers have failed to repay their bank loans.

Developer Datuk Dr Vincent Tiew, who was also on the six-man panel of speakers, said that less banks in Malaysia are giving out loans now as some of them are trying to merge.

Tiew, who is the managing director of Andaman Property Management, said between 35 per cent to 65 per cent of loan applications by his prospective buyers are turned down, which meant his firm would have to approach 16 buyers to sell off 10 units.

He also spoke of the banking industry’s weaker support to the housing industry, where banks would slowly roll out loan approvals in piecemeal fashion for a development even if they had confidence in the project.

Siva Shanker, CEO of property agency PPC International, said it was time for the government to stimulate the property market, noting that past cooling measures to slow down the “mad increase” in property value have been effective and are no longer required.

Source: TheMalayMailOnline.com