News by M

While prices within the Sentul Masterplan have set new benchmarks for the area, the secondary market is still largely dominated by the low to mid-end segment.

S P Setia Bhd has confirmed its acting president and chief executive officer Datuk Khor Chap Jen as executive president and CEO, Datuk Wong Tuck Wai as deputy president and chief operating officer, and Choy Kay Yew as chief financial officer, effective April 1.

Meanwhile, Bank Negara says there is an oversupply of office and retail space. Office space in the Klang Valley recorded a vacancy rate of 20.4% in 2015, compared with the regional average of 6.6% and national level of 16.3%.

While the Sentul Masterplan urban renewal continues, the rest of the neighbourhood remains a low to mid-end market, comprising primarily dated apartments and condominiums.

AmInvestment Bank said it does not preclude the possibility of seeing Peninsular-based contractors being invited to set up joint ventures (JVs) to bid for jobs, after The Edge Weekly reported that UEM Group Bhd, MMC Corp Bhd and Warisan Tarang Construction Sdn Bhd are teaming up for the Sabah portion of the Pan Borneo Highway.

AN undersupply of affordable housing, particularly in major urban areas, coupled with an oversupply of office and retail spaces, may lead to deeper imbalances in the property market, says Bank Negara Malaysia in its 2015 annual report, which was released recently. Despite a 35% increase in housing stock since 2005, the gap between the housing stock and the number of households widened from 2.1 million units in 2005 to 2.5 million in 2015. Annual housing completion has declined considerably in the past five years as the number of households continued to grow. There was an estimated average shortage of 85,911 housing units per year between 2011 and 2015.

WCT Holdings Bhd has been awarded a RM133.9 million contract from Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) to redevelop the police quarters in Gombak.

Dissatisfaction over expensive home prices has been escalating in Malaysia in recent years, with prices now reportedly beyond the reach of an average worker in key states like Kuala Lumpur and Penang. The situation, as many have lamented, is also not helped by the government’s move towards rationalising subsidies and the introduction of the goods and services tax last year.

Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB)’s Penang Sky Cab, a 4.8km cable car system first mooted by the state government in March last year to connect mainland Penang in Butterworth and Jelutong in Penang Island, is expected to begin construction in the first quarter of 2018 (1Q2018).

The shift of focus to affordable housing below the RM500,000 per unit range, which has been seeing more resilient demand than higher-end properties, may strain the margins of developers, especially those who are not traditionally involved in this housing category, said Kenanga Investment Bank.