UEM Land plans Johor resort

UEM Land Holdings Bhd has bought nearly RM500 million worth of land to develop a high-end residential resort in Desaru, Johor.

It expects to rake in RM5.4 billion gross development value from the project, UEM Land said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia.

The company yesterday announced that it had bought 25 parcels of land measuring 271.48 hectares for RM485.3 million.

The proposed development entails residential components, comprising bungalows, semi-detached houses, link houses, townhouses and service apartments/condominiums as well as a beach club.

The development will be surrounded by two 27-hole and 18-hole golf courses.

The project, in collaboration with Desaru Development Holdings One Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Desaru Development Corp Sdn Bhd (DDC) is expected to start by 2013 with completion of the final phase within 20 years.

UEM Land said it was invited to participate in the Desaru development by DDC, the master planner of Desaru due to its expertise in high-end residential development, such as East Ledang and Horizon Hills, a golf residential development in Nusajaya, as well as high-rise developments in Mont Kiara, Klang Valley.

Desaru is expected to be earmarked as the leisure and tourism region for Johor, offering an integrated resort lifestyle experience with world-class leisure and tourism accommodation, entertainment and attraction.

Such development of Desaru as an international tourist destination will be spearheaded by Khazanah Nasional Bhd (via DDC).

UEM Land said the proposal is in line with the group's continuous effort in sourcing new landbank and property development opportunities to improve and sustain its long-term earnings growth.

The proposal will also allow it to diversify its development portfolio and due to the scale of the landbank, it will have the flexibility to conceptualise, design and develop a residential resort with wide-ranging features and amenities.

By Business Times