Looking back on an eco voyage

A PIONEER of eco-themed township developments in the country, S P Setia Bhd plans to unveil the next component of the first phase of its Setia Eco Templer project in Rawang this quarter. The component will comprise 2 and 3-storey shopoffices and Rumah Selangorku units.

The developer debuted Setia Eco Templer in May last year and over the weekend of the launch of its first phase (44-acre Essex Garden with a GDV of RM282 million), almost all the 234 linked villas, bungalows and semi-detached houses were snapped up. The phase was sold out within two weeks despite the sluggish real estate market where investment sentiment was low, mortgage application rejection rates were high and affordable homes were in more demand.

The prices of the 2-storey linked villas (built-up: 22ft by 80ft, 24ft by 80ft and 26ft by 85ft) started at RM850,000 while the 24ft by 80ft and 41ft by 95ft semidees cost RM1.66 million onwards and the 75ft by 85ft two-storey bungalows, RM2.8 million onwards.

Unperturbed by the current weak property market, executive vice-president Datuk Koe Peng Kang is set on bringing out the best in the 194-acre Setia Eco Templer, leveraging his experience in crafting eco-themed developments from scratch. Setia Eco Park in Shah Alam and Setia Eco Glades in Cyberjaya come to mind.

Set amidst rolling hills, rainforest reserves, natural lakes and creeks, Setia Eco Templer’s theme is “The Legend of Nine Creeks” and the development will feature English, Balinese and Peranakan-inspired architectural designs. The township has an estimated GDV of RM2 billion and will take another 7 to 10 years to complete.

Setia Eco Templer won the Design Excellence Award in the Malaysian Institute of Planners’ Planning Excellence Awards 2016.

“Property development today is a different story altogether in contrast to taking the conservative, quick turnaround approach to just build a normal housing project that is not a difficult thing to do,” Koe tells City & Country in an exclusive interview.

“At S P Setia, we think it is a fantastic opportunity to create and enhance the value of our developments through conserving and preserving their natural environment, and this has been a part of
S P Setia’s DNA from the day we started our eco development at Setia Eco Park.”

Eco beginnings

Koe was part of a team overseeing a highway construction project in Johor under S P Setia’s infrastructure division when he was called up to spearhead the first eco-themed township development, now known as Setia Eco Park. The year was 2003. “In the wake of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, when houses were difficult to sell, all of us were dispersed and a team of us was assigned to design and construct highways in Batu Pahat,” Koe recounts.

“When the company bought the 4,000-acre tract in Shah Alam, of which 791 acres were to be carved out for an eco-themed development, we were all asked to return to our core business and we started researching what ‘eco’ meant at that point in time.”

Setia Eco Park has a total GDV of RM5.5 billion, of which RM3.3 billion has already been launched. The township is set to be completed in 2027.

According to Koe, the inception and conceptualisation of Setia Eco Park was an interesting period as the eco-development concept was still in its infancy. “We first looked at technology but solar panels were practically non-existent in the country and there was no government initiative for eco developments at the time. And winds are not strong enough here to generate electricity,” he says.

As an engineer, Koe realised that he had the fundamental concept of what constituted “eco” at the back of his mind, which he had learnt during his highway construction days. “When we designed and built highways, we had to carefully assess the impact of the construction activities on the environment and had to come up with solutions to mitigate such impact and manage a delicate balance between preserving the environment and progressing with the construction. So, looking back, we found the answers.

“We realised we didn’t need wide roads for traffic in the huge gated developments because to construct roads, we needed to build quarries and mine stones, which were all energy-consuming activities. We decided to shrink the roads from 21ft to 16ft, enough for traffic, thus releasing a lot of land for planting trees and parking. We also saved a lot of material in that way,” he explains.

“Next, we shrank the drains because water can seep through to the ground. We chose to do things in a more eco-friendly way and to have greater diversity in terms of the types of plants and trees that we planted — according to and suitable for specific birds and insects, such as butterflies and bees, to feed on them.”

As for the township’s eco landscape, Koe says, “We designed it by following the terrain rather than cutting the earth flat, which disrupts the environment. We also minimised costs that way. By designing our buildings on slopes, usable common spaces were also created. We found that it was possible to use less machinery, thereby cutting down on carbon emissions.

“As for biodiversity, we created a lot of water bodies for water retention and flood mitigation. Each lake became a recreational area and a home to fish. We don’t allow anyone to fish at the lakes, which also helps control the population of mosquitoes the natural way rather than fogging, which harms other friendly creatures.”

Back in 2007, when the government introduced solar power, the developer built seven houses with solar panels. When this proved successful, it subsequently built more, which is how some phases in the township are equipped with solar panels. “People who are environmentally conscious don’t mind paying more for the solar panels,” says Koe.

He explains that besides looking at individual building designs, which include orientation, types of materials used, water-efficient systems and cross-ventilation, the overall environment needs to be planned. “That is how Setia Eco Park has become the birthplace of our eco concepts.”

The developer is working with World Wildlife Fund Malaysia and the community on how to preserve the 4,000-acre Bukit Cerakah (also known as Bukit Cahaya) forest reserve next to the township. Within Setia Eco Park, there are 56 acres of forest parks and 94 acres of waterways, lakes and creeks.

Koe and his team are now planning to build a waterfall and five crystal fountains at Setia Eco Park, all of them powered by a hybrid solar system.

Setia Eco Park was launched in June 2004 with 278 bungalow lots in Phase 1, Precinct 3. The size of the lots ranged from 7,760 to 13,085 sq ft and were priced from RM440,000 to RM1.059 million. The latest launch was in September last year — Phase 16B, Elizabeth Falls — and comprised 10 two-storey semidees with built-ups of 2,794 to 3,194 sq ft and land size of 41ft x 85ft. They were priced from RM1.85 million to RM2.42 million and are sold out.

Recently, the keys to the homes in Phase 8E, Nusantara Series, were handed over. Launched in February 2014, the phase consisted of 43 two-storey bungalows and semidees, of which 86% have been sold to date. The built-ups of the semidees and bungalows are 2,794 and 3,049 to 3,523 sq ft respectively while the land sizes are 3,918 to 4,908 sq ft and 6,781 to 10,805 sq ft respectively.

Setia Eco Park has won numerous awards, such as The Edge Malaysia Top Property Developers Awards, Fiabci Prix’ D’Excellence Awards, Fiabci Malaysia Property Awards, Malaysia Greentech Award, Star Property Award and Malaysia Landscape Architecture Awards.

“People always think eco is a form of certification. From S P Setia’s perspective, we look at it from day one when we look at the land and what we can preserve as much as possible on it … from planting suitable trees for the birds, transplanting trees so we don’t chop them down … to preserving the environment for the natural flora and fauna,” says Koe.

Built with the same passion for the environment, Setia Eco Glades is Koe’s second eco-themed township development and was launched in 2012. The 268-acre township has a total GDV of RM3 billion, of which RM1.1 billion has already been launched.

“No two pieces of land are the same. When we first looked at the land, we found that it had been mined and locked before it turned into a secondary forest with a lot of trees and saplings. We also found a lot of water bodies with dense Lepironia plants. Because it was mined, people told us it may not be a good piece of land to develop but I thought it was a gold mine,” says Koe.

Setia Eco Glades represents the collective vision of its project development team — eight design concepts on eight different islands and eight fountains. The latest launch in the township was the Isle of Kamares, consisting of 240 low-rise island villa suites with built-ups ranging from 1,414 to 1,521
sq ft and priced at RM917,400 to RM1.1 million. Isle of Kamares is 60% taken up, to date.

Previously launched phases include 104 linked villas at Liuli Garden; 110 semidees at Lepironia Garden; 75 linked villas, semidees and bungalows at Charm of Nusantara; and 83 bungalows, semidees and linked villas at Sanctuary of Eastern & Western Heritage.

Apart from themed gardens and fountains, Setia Eco Glades comes with parkland and canals for creating and sustaining mini-ecosystems for its native flora and fauna. Koe says that with the help of experts, such as the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, the team has successfully transplanted 1,500 trees and tagged each tree with GPS. All homes and community facilities at Setia Eco Glades are Green Building Index-certified.

Setia Eco Glades won the Project of the Year Award and the Excellence Award at the Malaysia Landscape Architecture Awards 2016 for its Lepironia Garden.

As for Setia Eco Templer, Koe says he found the inspiration for it after a few trips to the site where the former Perangsang Templer Golf and Country Club once stood. “Every time I visited the site, my shoes got soaked, so I pulled out the topography plans of the site and found many valleys and streams in the place.”

“It is a regular engineering practice to provide drains to channel water out of the land but I found an opportunity to exploit the land and streams, making them recreational areas by adding more plants and features to them. And so the nine streams and creeks going into the land became the backbone of our concept,” he explains.

“We believe that we should not force human activity on the land but rather accommodate and do justice to it. While we all need houses to live in, we can also choose to preserve the environment, which would enhance the value of the development in the long run.”

Other ongoing eco-themed township developments by S P Setia include the 272-acre Setia Eco Cascadia (GDV: RM2.49 billion) and 765-acre Setia Eco Gardens (RM2.66 billion) in Johor Baru; the 673-acre Setia EcoHill (RM4 billion) in Semenyih and 1,010-acre Setia EcoHill 2 (GDV: RM5 billion) in Beranang.

The developer launched the last block of affordable apartments at Setia EcoHill on Jan 21.

New potential

S P Setia is planning another eco-themed township development on a recently acquired 1,675-acre tract in Seberang Perai Utara in Penang with an estimated GDV of RM9.6 billion.

The project, which Koe will also be spearheading, is reported to take 15 to 20 years to complete. “I’ll be visiting the site, an oil palm estate, to understand it and what it can offer. We are not rushing to develop and we are still looking for inspiration to create a theme for it and to build a sustainable development around it. This project will be our next growth.

“On this piece of land, we can build a sustainable community with linked houses or superlinked houses, international colleges, a clubhouse and others. The important thing is to ensure the place appreciates in value and I think the land has good potential,” he adds.

According to Koe, every development by S P Setia is unique, depending on their individual potential. “Each project needs to have its own personality. Some land has no soul but there are those that give us a good feeling. Maybe through years of experience, it will be easier to identify that potential,” he says.

This article first appeared in City & Country, a pullout of The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on Jan 23, 2017. Subscribe here for your personal copy.