Rehda Penang chairman Datuk Jerry Chan Fook Sing says developers in Penang are facing high land prices.

Penang property developers will adopt a “wait-and-see” approach in rolling out new property projects next year in view of various factors, including rising power costs, fuel subsidy cuts and house buyers’ cautious stance.

The Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) has expressed concern over bureaucratic red tape involved in obtaining developers’ licences and advertising permits for new launches, in addition to being saddled with rising construction and compliance costs.

Rehda Penang chairman Datuk Jerry Chan yesterday said Penang developers have to contend with not only making the biggest contribution to infrastructure, drainage and non-delivery of low- and low-medium cost homes, but also of high land costs, especially on Penang island.

“Since August, the issuance of advertising permits for new launches is taking longer than two weeks and run up to more than two months, while plans for fire safety now have to be vetted by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government as opposed to local council previously,” he said.

Also present was IJM Land northern region general manager Datuk Toh Chin Leong.

“We are cautious and will launch our new projects accordingly next year as house buyers appear to be cautious and there is still confusion over the effects of property prices once the Goods and Services Tax is implemented,” said Toh.

Chan said Rehda is disappointed with the lack of incentives for private developers to build affordable housing and the lack of measures to lift the soft property market since cooling measures were introduced in 2014 Budget.

“The 50 per cent stamp duty exemption for properties up to RM500,000 until December 31 2016 will help ease home ownership cost. However, full exemption would be more helpful for the first time buyers in view of property prices, particularly in Penang, Johor and the Klang Valley.”

He said apart from having to fork out the higher charges for property development in Penang compared with the rest of the country, developers are faced with high land prices.

“With these kind of costs, it is tough for property prices here to come down and the future trend for low-cost and low-medium cost housing would be to make them smaller,” Chan noted.

He expressed Rehda’s concerns over the availability of financing for affordable homes in Penang.

“We do not want a situation where affordable houses are built and buyers are unable to purchase them if financing does not come through.”

Chan said some projects have started work and will be completed in three years.

“Rehda shares the government’s vision and mission of providing adequate, quality and affordable housing for the people. One of the ways is reviewing residential property plot ratio guidelines further to allow developers to bring down the cost of building, thus provide more affordable housing for the people of Penang,” he said.

Source: New Straits Times Online

Senjayu @ Jawi, an upcoming 70-acre mixed development by IJM Land in Jawi, mainland Penang. Strategically located next to the entry point of the Jawi toll, about 12 minutes drive to the south of Penang Second Bridge.

The residential component of this development consists of:

• Phase 1: Senjayu Terrace – 2-storey terrace (298 units)
• Phase 2: Senjayu Residences- 2-storey semi-detached (156 units)
• Phase 3: Senjayu Skyhomes – Condominium (392 units)
• Phase 4: Senjayu Residences II – 2-storey semi-detached (85 units)

The launch date is yet to be fixed. More details to be available upon project launch.

Project Name : Senjayu @ Jawi
Location : Jawi/Nibong Tebal, Penang
Property Type : Mixed Development
Indicative Price: RM 480,000 onwards (Phase 1)
Land Tenure: Freehold
Developer : IJM Land

Location Map:

The Tamarind, a freehold executive apartments by E&O Property at Seri Tanjung Pinang, Penang. Located along Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang 1, within walking distance to Straits Quay and Tesco. It is also well connected by strategic access roads to many amenities including schools, medical centres and shopping malls.

This development comprises two 33-storey towers of service apartments.

Project Name: The Tamarind
Location : Seri Tanjung Pinang, Penang
Property Type : Executive Apartments
Tenure : Freehold
Total Units: 1,104 (To be confirmed)
Built-up Area: 1,042 sq.ft. onwards
Indicative Price: RM 600,000 onwards
Developer : E&O Property Development
Estimated Completion : 2019

Location Map:

Contributed by reader (Update 18/07/15)

[nggallery id=121]

Artist's impression of Ivory's mixed-development project in Tanjung Tokong.

The Penang property scene, which has seen prices soaring to new levels in the last two years, will see new affordable properties with a gross development value (GDV) of RM4.7bil entering the market in prime locations over the next three years.

Besides the pricing, which ranges between RM300,000 and RM650,000 depending on location, other attractions of these properties are their size, which ranges between 850 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft, and the facilities provided.

Raine & Horne director Michael Geh said the pricing was in response to the slower pace of property market impacted by the high rejection rate of housing loans.

Developers planning such new properties include Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O), Boon Siew Group (BSG), Tambun Indah Land Bhd and Ideal Property Group, which owns Ideal United Bintang Bhd and Ideal Sun City Bhd.

Ideal accounts for about 68% or RM3.2bil GDV of such projects that are slated for launch next year. The projects of the other three developers make up the remaining GDV.

Ideal is developing 6,508 condominium units in different locations over the next three years.

There are two categories – those priced between RM300,000 and RM400,000 and those priced at RM450,000, according to executive chairman Datuk Alex Ooi.

Condominium projects are currently priced at RM550 per sq ft onwards in Bayan Baru and Bayan Lepas, and RM1,300 per sq ft onwards for those in Gurney Drive and Tanjung Tokong.

Ooi said the attractive pricing would ensure that quality homes with decent built-up areas and facilities in prime and strategic areas fell within the disposable income range of house buyers.

“In Tanjung Tokong, we plan to launch, on a 9.9-acre leasehold site, 900 sq ft condominiums priced at RM450,000 in 2015 or 2016.

“We provide facilities such as pools, indoor and outdoor gymnasiums, a rest pavilion, a dining pavilion, a barbecue corner, a jogging track and a reflexology path,” he said.

New condominiums in the Tanjung Tokong area are priced between RM700 and RM1,300 per sq ft.

Ideal’s other projects are in Bayan Lepas, Sungai Ara and Balik Pulau.

Ooi said the group would kick off with the One Foresta project in Bayan Lepas next year.

“Subsequently, we will launch two more projects, in Bayan Lepas and Balik Pulau, over the next three years.

“The condominiums are priced between RM300,000 and RM400,000 and are equipped with a wide range of facilities.

“The units have built-up areas of 900 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft,” he said.

In Seri Tanjung Pinang in Tanjung Tokong, E&O is registering interested buyers for its Tamarind high-rise project, aimed at young professionals.

Located within the Seri Tanjung Pinang development, it is learnt that the Tamarind project will be competitively priced.

Each of the 1,042 sq ft units will have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. E&O’s condominium projects in Seri Tanjung Pinang are currently priced at RM1,100 to RM1,300 per sq ft.

BSG plans to launch 1,000 condominium units with 850 sq ft built-up in Tanjung Bungah in mid-2015.

The indicative pricing per unit is below RM400 per sq ft, according to a BSG spokesperson.

In Seberang Prai, Tambun Indah will launch 1,106 units of landed and high-rise properties with a GDV of RM469.6mil in its Pearl City mixed-development scheme next year.

The residential properties comprise double-storey terrace, townhouse, double-storey semi-detached and bungalow units.

Tambun Indah executive director Teh Theng Theng said that to ensure the properties were within reach of house buyers, the pricing would be lower than that of a similar range of properties in the other strategic locations of Seberang Prai.

Ivory Properties Group Bhd executive chairman Datuk Low Eng Hock said the group was now working towards providing affordable homes to cater to young adults and newly-wed couples by providing smaller units to suit their budget.

“Currently, we are in the planning stage of offering such units in the Batu Ferringhi area.

“Our current projects such as The Wave and Penang WorldCity are still affordably priced from RM700 and RM800 per sq ft onwards, respectively,” Low added.

Source: StarProperty.my

by Charles Tan

In Penang, the electronics sector is a very important sector for property market. The reason I say so is because more often than not a lot of these manufacturing companies would hire engineers as well as other functions to support operations and these are the potential buyers of properties. This is especially so when these professionals got married to each other and thus, the combined income allows them to support the property market for the above RM500,000 properties. That’s one key reason why many of these high-rise properties which are not above RM650,000 are normally well sought after. In fact, when you ask around, a lot of these engineers who are just reaching 30-35 are still without a property to their name. Of course whether they buy or not depends on individual preference and the property prices because even these professionals could not buy if the property prices becomes totally unaffordable.

According to a recent report in an English daily, the electronics industry in Penang will have a very good first quarter of 2015. This is despite the fact that the first quarter is normally a slower period. For 2014, the electronics segment which covers the industrial electronic components, flex-circuited, printed circuit boards (PCB) and PCB Assembly (PCBA products) would be announcing better results compared to 2013. For 2015, the growth would continue with the following products which are becoming popular in the market. They include wearable smart devices, portable health equipment, light-emitting-diode (LED) automotive lighting, energy-saving home appliances, box-built medical and touch-screen display products. I think we can identify some of these products easily as we can see them being used or sold in many places.

Of course, as usual, when there are good news there are also the downside. What if there’s a slowdown in the industry? Well, truth is, all these companies that are reporting better results would just have to continue understand their business and their industry and keep themselves up to date with the latest needs from the market. A more pertinent question to the property market vibrancy would be how many of these companies are moving up the value chain and hiring even more engineers instead of labour intensive which is going to be too competitive in the near future anyway. There’s really no way that Malaysia can compete with much bigger countries on this account. For now, I think the support from the electronics sector to the Penang property market is very strong and it is very much related. If the whole electronics sector go down, it will definitely have a bearing on the Penang property market’s continuous growth. For the engineers, keep up the great work.

>> This opinion article comes courtesy of Charles, the founder of kopiandproperty.com. He is popular for sharing his thought on property investment mostly based on his own 11 years experience as well as from all the readings and conversations with property gurus in the industry. (Source)