Sunway aims to replicate Sunway City’s success in Iskandar

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18): When Sunway Group, controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah, embarked on a massive project to develop 800 acres (323.7ha) of tin-mining wasteland in Selangor into a township in 1986, it had its fair share of naysayers.

However, Sunway City soon turned out to be a success and over the years a college, a theme park, a resort hotel, a mall, office buildings, a hospital and a bus rapid transit system were added to the township. Today it is home to over 200,000 residents and 25,000 students.

Now, Sunway Iskandar Sdn Bhd wants to replicate Sunway City’s success in its new township in Iskandar Puteri, Johor. Spanning 1,800 acres (728.4ha), Sunway Iskandar is Sunway’s largest integrated city.

According to its chief executive officer Gerard Soosay, Sunway Iskandar — an indirect subsidiary of Sunway Bhd — aims to attract 140,000 people to live in the development.

Gerard said Sunway has a sizable advantage over its competitors in that it is a township developer and not a plot developer.

“If you have a township, this is where you have the advantage of bringing in other products that suit market needs,” he told The Edge Financial Daily in Johor recently.

As a first step in township development, Gerard said it is imperative to build the amenities. “Management had unanimously agreed that education must be the most important tool in building a township,” he added.

About 270 students are already enrolled at the Sunway International School Sunway Iskandar and it plans to increase the number of students to 350 in the 2018 intake.

Gerard pointed out that bringing the industrial element to Iskandar Puteri is also key to spurring activities at Sunway Iskandar.

Sunway group is aware it can’t do it alone in this area, he said. “We need the federal’s and state government’s help to bring industries into Iskandar Puteri.”

He said the Johor government has helped attract businesses and people to Iskandar Malaysia by providing incentives and looking at how to assist developers amid the current challenging operating environment. “This is to make Johor a thriving place that everyone wants to live in.”

Contrary to reports of a housing oversupply in Johor, Gerard said Sunway Iskandar’s launches under the first phase of its Citrine Lakehomes have received overwhelming response from homebuyers. The 360 units of Citrine Lakehomes are now completely sold out.

On how did the company achieve it, Gerard said Sunway Iskandar simply went back to basics. “We went back to the four Ps of marketing that are price, product, promotion and place.”

Dubbed “Greater Singapore” by Cheah, Sunway Iskandar is located about five minutes away from the Tuas Checkpoint, while the newly opened Coastal Highway Southern Link in Johor shortens travel time to Singapore by half.

The Sunway Iskandar masterplan consists of six precincts, namely The Lakeview, The Marketplace, The Parkview, The Seafront, The Riverside and The Capital.

The next plot Sunway Iskandar is looking to develop is The Marketplace precinct, which includes a new concept mall called the Big Box Village measuring 500,000 sq ft of gross floor area and consists of a 32-acre (13ha) adventure-based extreme park and a hotel.

The XPARK will feature activities for both adults and children with activities such as Go-Kart, kayaking, glamping sports, long-range archery and a kids pump track.

As for the hotel, construction work is scheduled for the first quarter of 2018 and will be completed by mid-2018.

“Next year, we have called it as “welcoming the community”. We have just started handing over Citrine Residences and the offices and so, we are in the process of welcoming our community,” said Gerard.

Sunway Iskandar, which has a gross development value of RM30 billion, will keep the Sunway group busy for the next 20 to 30 years.

Sunway shares closed 10 sen or 6.25% higher at RM1.70 last Friday, bringing a market capitalisation of RM8.32 billion. Year to date, the stock has risen 34%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Dec 18, 2017.

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