Potential 1,000 new PR1MA low cost homes cancelled, new plans?

A few weeks back, I read about Ivory Properties announcing that it has won the rights to redevelop Plaza Rakyat and that the GDV was going to be RM8 Billion. This is indeed a huge project for Ivory Properties which is one of Penang’s very own homegrown developers. I have personally bought one property from them before. Quality is not the top end but then again, based on the price I paid, not too bad. This redevelopment was supposed to have included up to 1,000 units of low cost homes under the PR1MA scheme. Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has other plans because they said that Ivory Properties was not appointed by them but by Plaza Rakyat Sdn Bhd (PRSB). Since the JV with PRSB has been terminated in April 2010, it meant that any decision made by PRSB is no longer valid.
From Ivory, its CEO Datuk Low Eng Hock said that  they are still interested and willing to negotiate with the city hall in order to achieve a win-win deal for all parties involved. “We hope to meet up with DBKL soon to inform them about the details of our acquisition and rehabilitation agreement (ARA) with PRSB.” The initial plan was to turn the Plaza Rakyat into a mixed use development consisting of a mall, hotels, serviced residences and most importantly, a 1,000 unit low-cost homes in collaboration with PR1MA corporation.
Okay, my personal view is simple. If it is true that with this plan, 1,000 new low-cost homes would be built, then whoever DBKL decides should match if not better this number. Come on, if the authorities are seriously looking to tackle the lack of affordable properties, then please decide on a plan which incorporates these units and not one which may seem to profit DBKL but the number of units of the low-cost homes are either reduced or worst still, none built. Let’s watch this closely and see what’s the final plan going to be. Higher GDV, higher number of low cost homes and a new developer taking this up? I hope so.
written on 27 June 2014
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