Sime Darby Property seeks partners to develop landbank

SIME Darby Property Bhd (SDPB), the property arm of Sime Darby Bhd, will form joint ventures with both local and foreign property developers to help develop its 14,800ha of landbank in the country.

"One of the strategies we have adopted is to accelerate the development of our landbank through joint ventures. We are now talking to a few parties," SDPB managing director Datuk Tunku Badlishah Tunku Annuar told Business Times in an interview.

He declined to name the potential parties.

According to sources, SDPB has chosen Sunrise Bhd and IOI Properties Bhd as its joint venture partners to begin with.



Tunku Badlishah also said SDPB will launch RM2 billion worth of properties this year, amid prospects of an economic recovery gaining strength.

It will launch properties ranging from affordable to high-end homes and landed to high-rise within its 10 existing townships in the Klang Valley.

The townships include Subang Jaya, Bukit Jelutong, USJ Heights, Bandar Bukit Raja, Ara Damansara, Denai Alam, Melawati, Nilai Impian, Planters' Haven and Putra Heights.

Tunku Badlishah said SDPB is cautiously optimistic that the property market will do better this year as there is strong interest among buyers.

He cited the developer's recent sale of houses in Denai Alam and USJ Heights, where each home was priced between RM500,000 and RM1.5 million and were fully taken up.

Sime launched Mandara in USJ Heights over the weekend and sold 54 per cent of the 98 units of two-and-half-storey terraced houses available for sale.

Two weeks ago, it launched Clover Park in Denai Alam, comprising 81 units of double-storey link houses. It sold 75 per cent of the homes in just two days.

Last November, Kayangan Puteri in USJ Heights was launched. It consists of 125 units of double-storey superlink homes, of which 14 per cent of the units are remaining.

"I was pleasantly surprised by our sales achievement. The success of these launches is testimony to the recovery of the property market. In times of uncertainty, people would buy from a reputable developer and we have the edge over this," Tunku Badlishah said.

He added that SDPB's "Buy Now" promotion had also helped to bolster sales. It offers buyers a "Guaranteed Buy Back" scheme, coupled with innovative financing packages.

"We will launch a loyalty or premier club programme in March, which will further strengthen our position in the market place. Under this plan, the more properties one buys from us, the more benefits they stand to get.

"We are talking to all the divisions within the Sime Darby Group such as automotive to see what they can offer for our customers. We hope to put in place everything by March."