Slow transactions today? Upswing by end 2015 or 2016

Currently, transactions are slow. Very slow in fact. However, according to UEM Sunrise Bhd, an upswing will happen end 2015 or beginning of 2016. According to newly appointed managing director (MD)/chief executive officer (CEO) Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib, property sales in the affordable segment has slowed down and the toughest was the loan application part. Recently, Selangor has announced new rules for property purchase in Selangor. One example, the minimum purchase price for foreigners is RM1mil for the Hulu Selangor and Sabak Bernam districts and RM2mil elsewhere. This ruling would however not affect UEM Sunrise.
A more important point is that despite the fact that 60% of UEM Sunrise’s land is in Iskandar, they are not worried about the China developers. The reason given was that these China developers are maximising space and building high-rise buildings while UEM Sunrise is offering landed projects and thus a different segment altogether. Personally I do not agree fully to this assessment but we shall see what happens next in Iskandar for UEM SUnrise vs the China developers. My reason is because if the sentiment turns negative due to sudden deluge of supply, even landed property sales would slow down and we must remember that 60% of UEM Sunrise’s land is in Iskandar.
UEM Sunrise is excited about their development in Melbourne. It involves turning an eight-storey carpark into a 92-storey mixed development of 940 apartments, 200-key hotel and some retail components. The development will be launched in November and sits above the Melbourne underground station with three blocks of shopping malls across and 80 metres away from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Sometimes, it is these news which gets you excited. How many times have you heard of a carpark being turned into a huge mixed development? No prices were mentioned but for Melbourne, I think this project is likely to be a small unit apartment because bigger units would be very expensive.
written on 25th Sept 2014
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