Mah Sing group managing director and chief executive Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum said in a statement the company was gratified to win the award for the second year running.

CEO, Liew Mun Leong of  CapitaLand,Southeast Asia‘s largest property developer CapitaLand announced that the company is to:-

• deploy S$1 billion of S$1.8 billion (S$1 = RM2.44) in capital raised from a recent rights issue to its businesses in China, Vietnam and the Ascott Group.
• S$500 million of the S$1 billion will go to its China arm, S$299 million to Vietnam and the remainder to Ascott, a wholly-owned unit that operates serviced apartments.
• The rest of the S$1.8 billion will be kept for further investment opportunities.

Source: Reuter

Details:
Auctioned property:

• Putra Place, which houses The Mall shopping complex, the five-star Legend Hotel and an office tower.
• Its reserve price was set at RM634.5 million. 
• The Mall comprises eight levels of podium retail/shopping units. The Putra Place office tower covers the tenth floor to the 33rd floor, while the 25-storey Legend Hotel includes serviced apartments and penthouses.The freehold property with 193,621 sq ft space has 1,323 parking bays. 
• The first auction was in April 2008 at a reserve price of RM705 million. As no bids were received, the price was reduced by 10 per cent to RM634.5 million.Despite heavy publicity like in the local dailies, advertisements were placed in the LA Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Jakarta Post, the second time auction was not successful

According to real estate experts:

• The commercial property, which is opposite the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, did not draw interest at the public auction yesterday because of its value and size.
• Real estate agent Previndran Singhe of Zerin Properties said it was rare for people to buy big-ticket items that go under the hammer. The purchaser(s) would prefer the deals to be done via tender or private treaty, adding that interest in a property on auction would not just depend on where one advertised but also how one advertised. The notices section in a publication tends to serve as information rather than a marketing effort.
• Regroup Associates Sdn Bhd managing director Allan Soo agreed saying that when large amounts of money were involved, the buyer would normally opt to do due diligence.
• An industry player who acquires assets on a regular basis said that for an acquisition of the size of Putra Place, one would need to be informed of the risks and that there should be full disclosure like for examples: tenancies, tenures, provision for bad debts, running costs, and age and status of the mechanical and engineering and whether additional capital expenditure would be involved.

The event was graced by the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.  

A total of nine awards were given out at the annual event dubbed the “Oscars” of the property industry. 

The other awards and winners were:

• MASTER Plan Category – Sentul West and Sentul East Master Plan by YTL Land and Development Bhd; 
• RESIDENTIAL Development (high rise) – Stonor Park by Beneton Properties Sdn Bhd;
• RESIDENTIAL Development (low rise) – Pinggiran Bayou by Leisure Farm Corp Sdn Bhd; 
• RESORT Development – Genting Highlands Resort by Resorts World Bhd; 
• RETAIL Development – KB Mall by YS Tang Holdings Sdn Bhd; 
• SPECIALISED Project – Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery by Laurent Lim Architect; 
• SPECIALISED Project – Persada Johor International Convention Centre by Persada Johor International Convention Centre; and 
• SPECIAL Award for National Contribution – The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre by YTL Corp Bhd. 
• Resorts World bagged the Best Resort award. 

(The Star Malaysia 28/10/07)

• The hotel group plans to have 30 properties under three core brand names – Cliftonwood, Adham and Wings – by the end of 2008, with Malaysia being one of its targeted destinations,

• The group’s overall strategy was to reach 150 hotels by 2013 with expected total investment of over US$2bil,

• Institutional investors and high net worth individuals would be the backbone for such a growth drive,

• All properties operating under the brands would serve only halal prepared food, as interpreted by syariah laws and the syariah supervisory board,

• Although there were plenty of individual syariah-compliant hotels worldwide, their positioning was usually dictated by the owner, either as an independent hotel, one within a chain or due to the syariah laws of a country where they are situated whereas Almulla’s brand proposition is so distinct that guests will be confident that its brand values have universal consistency as the Muslim traveller market was expanding around the world due to the increasing wealth in their communities, combined with conscious lifestyle living, and it represented 10% of the world tourism market, being one of the fastest growing segments. Their average spending is 10% to 50% higher than that of the average leisure or business traveller. The bottomline is that conscious lifestyle tourism is expected to grow at a rate of 20% per annum, five times more than the average traditional market segment,

• According to the group, the specific destinations targeted are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Egypt, Malaysia and Thailand.

• It is also looking forward to setting up operations in Europe with 15 deluxe hotels, to be followed by 25 business hotels in “the second European wave”.

• The group plans to capture the Gulf Cooperation Council travellers who contribute over US$12bil annually on leisure travel alone.

According to the World Tourism Organisation,

• Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest outbound travel markets in terms of average spend with tourists from the kingdom spending US$6.7bil annually on overseas travel.

• The UAE travellers are close behind, at more than US$4.9mil, averaging US$1,700 per trip, which is US$500 higher than the European average.

Source: Bernama(26/10/07)

Introduction:

• This FIABCI Property Awards was initiated 15 years ago during the Asian financial crisis and the property development sector was in a “down cycle”.

• An objective of the Malaysia Property Awards is to select the country’s entries to the world “Prix d’ Excellence” awards presented at the FIABCI World Congress. The participants comprise anyone within the real estate life cycle, from architects to marketing agents,

• The FIABCI association is a special consultant with NGO status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Benefits that might derived from FIABCI Award:

• The Malaysia Property Award and the Prix d’ Excellence were highly sought after because of its award’s transparency as the award criteria has become more comprehensive together with the appointment of independent judges from outside of the close knit industry;international firms and foreign partners have sought many past winners for joint projects both locally and abroad and for branding opportunities in terms of retail sales

Other details:

• For innovative concepts, the recent years have seen more emphasis on “green” or environmentally friendly concepts. One example is the Setia Eco Park Development by SP Setia Bhd, which won the master plan category and low-rise development categories at the Malaysia Property Awards 2006. Also, Setia Eco Park was the winner of Prix d’ Excellence Award 2007 in the master plan category.

• Another innovative concept that is surfacing in the Malaysian property sector is social redevelopment.An example is YTL Land & Development Bhd’s development of the Sentul East commercial and residential township and the Sentul West exclusive residences and greenery along the Jalan Sentul area in Kuala Lumpur.

(Source:The Star Malaysia,15/10/07)

The firm’s bid in the government land sale topped a rival offer from a consortium comprising government-owned developer Mapletree and CapitaLand as well as a bid by IOI Group, the city-state’s Urban Redevelopment Authority said in a statement late on Sept 18. Li Hiaw Ho, executive director of CB Richard Ellis Research, said the winning bid translates to about S$1,409 per square foot of built-up area and will yield at least 800,000 square feet of office space. After adding construction costs, fees and interest, the total cost may work out to around S$3 billion, the Business Times newspaper said on Sept 20 citing industry sources. The land plot is located near Singapore’s Marina Bay-the future site of the city-state’s new financial district and a casino – Reuters(20/9/07) 

Based on Hwang DBS Vicker Research: