Land and General sees better property market next year

AGM time: Low (left) and CFO Wong Keet Loy briefing the press after the company’s AGM.

KUALA LUMPUR: Land and General Bhd (L&G), whose niche lies in high-rise property development, expects the property market to recover next year.

Managing director Low Gay Teck said that despite the slowdown, it would go ahead with property launches since they were located in prime areas.

Earlier in January, L&G said that it planned to launch RM1.67bil worth of projects this year.

“Amidst the current challenging environment, we are still performing well and the property market is expected to pick up in 2017,” Low said after the company’s AGM.

To date, the company has undeveloped land with gross development value (GDV) of RM3.3bil.

Its unbilled sales of RM79.7mil and new development in the pipeline is in excess of RM2bil, which will keep the company busy in the next seven years.

He said L&G’s upcoming project include Damansara Foresta phase 2, Astoria Ampang and Sena Parc projects, which it hoped to roll out in the next six months.

Launched in April, the Astoria Ampang Tower A had already achieved 60% take-up rate, while Tower B will likely be launched sometime early next month depending on the take-up rate of Tower A, he said.

The Astoria Ampang consists of four blocks of luxury serviced apartments located off Jalan Ampang with RM860mil GDV and slated for completion in 2020.

“We plan to launch the Foresta phase 2 in the first quarter of 2017. The GDV for this is RM480mil,” he said, adding that this project sat on 13.16 acres of freehold land.

Meanwhile, Low revealed that in the fourth quarter of this year, L&G intends to kick-start the first phase of Sena Park project in Senawang, Negri Sembilan. This has a GDV of RM280mil and is expected to be handed over to buyers in three years’ time.

Formerly a golf course and L&G’s flagship landed residential property development, the entire Sena Park project’s total GDV is RM600mil.

He said the company also intended to complete the RM92.5mil acquisition of 112 acres in U10, Shah Alam in the next one to two months, after which the project would commence in 2017.

With an estimated GDV of RM1.2bil, this project has been gated for landed residential homes, namely terrace, semi-detached houses and a parcel of land demarcated for serviced apartments and commercial units that would be developed over three phases.

While 92% of the company’s revenue came from the property segment, Low said recurring income was from the education segment and this was relatively stable.

“We have received offers for our private school Sekolah Sri Bestari in Bandar Sri Damansara, but it hasn’t been attractive,” he said.

L&G continues to source for more land to enhance its property development portfolio.