Strong start for Tropicana Heights

KAJANG: The transformation of a former golf course into a housing estate in Kajang has gone well for Tropicana Heights, with the first phase Fairfield Residences fully taken up and ready for handover in the first quarter of next year, says Tropicana Corp Bhd executive director Kelvin Choo.

Tropicana bought the 199-acre parcel that was part of a 600-acre golf course for RM25 per square foot (psf) in 2012. It is now developing the land into a mixed-use development that will have residential, commercial, and recreational hubs, and a school.

“Meanwhile, our second phase Parkfield Residences saw a take-up rate of over 70% and 50% for the 2-storey terraced houses and 3-storey cluster houses, respectively,” says Choo. The cluster houses comprise four corner units attached to each other.

The 2-storey terraced houses have a gross development value (GDV) of RM308 million and were launched in March; the 3-storey cluster houses (GDV: RM190 million) were launched in June.

The 2-storey units have a built-up area of between 2,203 and 2,977 sq ft, and are priced between RM835,800 and RM1.82 million, while the 3-storey units (3,079 sq ft) are priced between RM1.23 million and RM1.64 million.

Parkfield Residences is expected to be completed in January 2018.


The key component of the entire development is the RM16 million, 16-acre Central Park located just beside the former sales gallery (now part of the development’s recreational hub).

The park is touted as the largest in Kajang and comes with a 750m ‘linear lake’ and a 10ft wide, 2.3km walkway. There are approximately 150 trees aged 20 years old or more planted around the park. They were saved before construction started and transplanted here.

Meanwhile, the developer is currently working on Tropicana Heights’ third phase, says Tropicana head of sales and marketing, Ung Lay Ting.

“Our third phase, which comprises townhouses and exclusive semi-detached houses, will be previewing in the second quarter of next year,” she adds.

Commenting on whether the high loan rejection rate has affected sales, Ung noted that in the case of Tropicana, the rate of converting bookings to sales has been encouraging, although loans generally take some time to be approved.

“From our first phase and second phase buyer statistics, almost 80% are homebuyers. We foresee this trend continuing until our third phase is introduced as well, and we are not so worried about the economic situation,” added Ung.

“We are also watching the economy very closely. Many developers are holding back launches because you do not want to go against the strong [economic] headwind,” Choo adds.

Tropicana Corp is confident of meeting its RM1.5 billion sales target for FY2015.
“RM1.5 billion is a realistic figure. We have many on-going projects to help us achieve that target, such as the project here in Kajang, Tropicana Aman in

Kota Kemuning, and The Residences in KLCC, among other projects,” says Choo.

A 13-acre plot of land in Fairfield Residences has been set aside for an integrated neighbourhood school, while the Market Square neighbourhood mall, will be launched as the sixth phase of the development.

“What we have in mind is a mall for people to do their grocery shopping, a few eateries for people to come together, and perhaps even a bank or ATM machines for their convenience,” Choo says.

Choo believes the master plan for Tropicana Heights will encourage community living.

“When you have all these facilities, people of all races come out and engage meaningfully with each other, which also helps our Malaysian identity to grow,” he offers.

Tropicana Heights can be accessed via four major highways namely Silk, Lekas, the North South Expressway and SKVE. It is also close to transport hubs, being 4 km to the proposed Kajang MRT station, 1km to the Kajang KTM station and 2.3km to the integrated bus station.

“We are also collaborating with a few developers to build a direct overhead bridge to the housing area. Tropicana is contributing approximately RM20 million of the total cost,” says Choo.

Read more about Tropicana Heights and Tropicana Corp's other developments here.

This story first appeared in The Edge Property pullout, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily every Friday, on Oct 2, 2015. Download your free copy of The Edge Property pullout here.