Mah Sing on lookout for land in prime areas

KUALA LUMPUR: Mah Sing Group Bhd is on a buying spree to acquire land banks that can generate a gross development value (GDV) of RM5 billion this year.

Its group managing direc-tor and group chief executive, Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum, said the company has ac-quired land with a total GDV of RM3.62 billion so far and is on the lookout for land banks that can give it a yield of at least RM1 billion.

"We are definitely on the lookout for land banks in prime areas such as Klang Valley, Penang, the Iskandar region in Johor and in Sabah," he told reporters after the companys extraordinary meeting at its headquarters, yesterday.

He said the company would redesign its housing concepts to include more townships that have plenty of affordable homes.

"This does not mean that we are doing away with the luxury concept but we have to listen to what the market wants and they want affordable homes," he said.

He said so far, Mah Sing had purchased three pieces of land this year in Rawang (RM41 million), Sabah (RM80.5 million) and soon, a parcel of land in Bangi for RM333.3 million.

"We are looking at building homes that will be priced below RM1 million and that will comprise mainly the types of homes that we are planning to build in the future," he added.

He said during yesterday's meeting, the shareholders had approved the acquisi-tion of the Bangi land meant for the SouthVille city township, which will kick-start next year.

The SouthVille city will be on a 166.7-hectare site and expected to be completed in the next eight years, starting from next year.

"We plan to have a range of affordable units that will include small office-home office units (Soho), affordable link homes and lifestyle suites priced from RM208,000 to RM530,000.

"We will start work on this project in the third quarter of next year and the first phase will be the affordable range that will be completed by 2016," he added.

By Business Times