Merge Housing to focus on Mont’Kiara and Puchong

KUALA LUMPUR: Merge Housing Bhd will be focusing on two residential projects in its current financial year, ending on May 31, 2008. One of the projects is located in Mont’Kiara and the other in Puchong.


An artist's impression of one of the Puncak Kiara bungalows

Puncak Kiara, the 9.5-acre freehold luxury bungalow development in Mont’Kiara is a joint venture with a private landowner. Merge Housing will be handing over 16 bungalows to the landowner by January.

This leaves the developer with a remaining 23 bungalow lots with average land areas of about 8,000 sq ft each.

The company has several options to dispose of them. “We can either look out for a bulk purchaser or build bungalows and sell them individually. Such homes can easily go for between
RM5 million and RM7 million each,” said managing director Lee Kuang Chong (pix) to reporters after its annual general meeting yesterday.



The developer also plans to launch 308 condominium units at its Puchong development called 983 Puchong. It has a gross development value of RM90 million and the developer is in the midst of submitting the building plans to the relevant authorities.

Lee also expressed the group’s interest in moving into the leasing business to generate rental income in the next one to two years. “For instance at our 1st Jelutong development, we have secured Tesco as the anchor tenant. We are now trying to approach food and beverage operators, banks as well as departmental stores,” said Lee.

Located in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam, the 1st Jelutong commercial centre comprises three retail podium levels and a plaza level with 2- and 3-storey shop offices. It has an estimated sales revenue of RM200 million.

For its 2007 financial year ended May 31, the group recorded a profit after tax of RM2.2 million, reversing a loss of RM14.5 million recorded in the preceding year.

By theSun (by Loo Pik Kwan)