Monday, August 2, 2010

News : UEM Land cashing in on Cyberjaya revival


CYBERJAYA: UEM Land Holdings Bhd, which will launch its maiden property project in the Klang Valley this weekend, expects “mediocre margins” from the 122 landed strata homes offered under the first phase of its high-end residential development, known as Symphony Hills, in Cyberjaya.

Managing director and chief executive Datuk Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim said he was confident buyers would be willing to pay more for future launches at the site once the main components of the development were completed.

“I managed to convince the board of directors that our margins will improve to a ‘decent’ level in upcoming launches after they (buyers) can see what we have delivered,” he told a media preview at the site yesterday.

A number of UEM Land’s projects in Johor have won international acclaim and the company is setting a high target for Symphony Hills.

Going forward, UEM Land will continue to expand its presence outside Johor.

“We have a little war chest that we will use to acquire good landbank in several hotspots,’’ said Wan Abdullah. He identified these so-called hotspots as the Klang Valley, Selangor, Penang and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

He said the group would only consider expanding overseas after 2012.

Symphony Hills is located on a 98-acre site near Multimedia University. UEM Land plans to build 2,865 residential and commercial units with a gross development value of RM1bil over the next five to eight years.

Only 410 landed homes are planned for this project, billed as the country’s first “connected intelligent community” development.

“Symphony Hills was conceptualised under a strategic and intelligent masterplan that reinforces aspects of planning, design and technology.

The concept combines the elements of comfort, convenience, community and security,’’ Wan Abdullah said.

The first of the “intelligent” houses will sell for RM1mil to RM2.3mil each, or RM300 to more than RM400 per sq ft, depending on design, size and location.

Wan Abdullah said a “floating pavillion” clubhouse within the development would be ready by the time the first batch of homeowners received their keys.

To ensure the project would live up to its wired and connected billings, UEM Land has roped in network system provider Cisco and Mesiniaga Bhd as partners.

UEM Land is the master developer of Nusajaya, Iskandar Malaysia in Johor, where it has 9,564 acres under various stage of development. The company is also a 25% shareholder in Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd, the master developer of Cyberjaya.

Wan Abdullah credited the Maju Expressway, which significantly cut travel time between Cyberjaya and Kuala Lumpur city centre, as the key to Cyberjaya’s recent revival.

“I believe we are hitting the market at the right time,” he said

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