Cyberjaya to be fully developed in 15 years

Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd, the master developer of Cyberjaya, is targeting to fully develop the city within 15 years, says chief operating officer Lao Chok Keang.

In an exclusive interview with StarBizWeek, Lao says currently about 35% of 3,705 acres of saleable land has been taken up.

“Land use for enterprise consists about 1,181 acres, commercial 352 acres, mixed development 290 acres, residential 1,564 acres, institutions 308 acres while light industry is about 10 acres. With better accessibility nowadays to Cyberjaya, I think we can see the full development of Cyberjaya within 15 years,” he says.


Lao Chok Keang says the role of the company is to undertake all aspects of Cyberjaya’s development.

Setia Haruman has been entrusted with the role to plan, design and prepare the primary infrastructure for the Cyberjaya Flagship Zone.

The area covers 7,129 acres of freehold land consisting of four main zones known as enterprise, commercial, institutional and residential. Each zone is fully equipped with a host of intelligent network services and interactive broadband services.

Since its launch in 1997 and some RM2bil in investments, Setia Haruman has successfully developed Cyberjaya as the country’s intelligent city. Cyberjaya has also taken shape to become an eco-friendly city with lush landscape gardens and streetscapes.

The city is fully equipped with wireless interactive city broadband services, fibre-optic networks and the latest technologies in information technology infrastructure and facilities.

Development in Cyberjaya has gained momentum since late last year, Lao says, citing the price increase of commercial land, which has risen to RM120 per sq ft from RM100 per sq ft.

“Despite the slight increase, the land here is still cheaper compared with the Kuala Lumpur City Centre area. Apart from large developers such as Mah Sing Group Bhd and Glomac Bhd launching new projects here, we are also in talks with five parties that are keen to acquire land in Cyberjaya for development. Three of them are public listed companies,” he says.

Lao says the role of the company is to undertake all aspects of Cyberjaya’s development, including planning and designing, providing basic infrastructure, marketing and selling of land parcels and other real estate developments.

“Setia Haruman offers assistance to Multimedia Super Corridor status companies in obtaining the right land and approvals for sub-division and building plans,” he says, adding that more than 50 buildings with 5.8 million sq ft of office space has been completed for leading companies such as HSBC, Shell, DHL and Motorola.

“Other major ongoing developments include HP campus (600,000 sq ft) and the Inland Revenue Department headquarters (600,000 sq ft) at enterprise zone, Garden Residences by Mah Sing at residential zone and also Glomac Cyberjaya (220,000 sq ft) at mixed development zone,” he says.

Lao says the company has built and sold over 3,000 units of residential homes that include 200 high-end properties.

Some of the new commercial developments include the CBD Perdana 2, comprising 256 units of four- and five-storey shop houses with a total gross development value of RM210mil.

“Setia Haruman is also working with UEM Land Bhd to develop a mix development project on a 100 acre plot at Perdana Lake View West. When the development of Cyberjaya is fully completed, there will be a total of 42,000 units of residential houses in the city,” he says.

On land sales figures, Lao says the company registered about RM500mil last year. This year the company is targeting about RM600mil based on increasing demand from buyers and investors.

By The Star