PKNS offers over 1,000 units at rock-bottom prices

From : The Star Online 07/05/2008 , by Debbie Chan

OVER 1,000 properties are up for grabs at rock-bottom prices in various parts of Selangor, including the state capital Shah Alam and the prime property hot-spot Kota Damansara.

The Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) has announced that the Jualan Hartanah Mampu Milik PKNS 2008 (PKNS Affordable Properties Sale 2008) will take place from this Friday to May 18.

A total of 1,173 residential units, 53 bungalows, 25 shoplots and 206 industrial land lots are on offer at bargain prices. On top of the discounted prices, buyers will also get incentives for each property bought. A 10% discount will be given to buyers of factory buildings in Rawang and Air Manis, Sabak Bernam.

All other buyers will be given free air-conditioners, LCD television sets and electrical appliance vouchers, depending on the price of the properties.

According to PKNS deputy general manger (administration and development) Md Nasir Md Arshad, the sale is intended to give the public an opportunity to own their dream homes at an affordable price.

“PKNS properties are always priced at 7% to 10% less than other properties on the market,” Nasir said.

This time around, the sale will encompass properties in Shah Alam, Kota Damansara, Antara Gapi, Kota Puteri, Bernam Jaya, Bandar Baru Bangi, Kuala Selangor and Bandar Sultan Suleiman in Port Klang.

Almost all these projects have been completed.

“PKNS is also offering a payment facility where buyers only need to pay a RM500 down payment before commencing on a loan scheme being offered to qualified buyers,” Nasir said.
“The facility is a confidence boost for buyers of PKNS properties.

“The buyers can also pick strategic locations, including the upmarket hot spots like the new eight-storey apartment block in Section 10 at Kota Damansara, which is priced from RM180,000 onwards,” he said.

The new apartment block is equipped with a swimming pool, a badminton court and sports area.
It is strategically located in the vicinity of Petaling Jaya and is linked to highways, including the Damansara-Puchong Highway and MRR 2.

In Shah Alam, PKNS is offering 167 apartments at RM145,000 each in Section 24, a strategically located residential area with many nearby facilities like schools, clinics, 24-hour restaurants, car workshops and the Giant, Mydin and Ole Ole supermarkets.

“The lowest priced apartment is RM59,000 for the five-storey apartment in Bandar Sultan Suleiman,” Nasir said.

He said PKNS decided to hold another special sale this year as the response to the previous one was overwhelming with buyers snapping up all the properties because of the competitive prices, strategic locations and other attractive facilities.

“We have started using the tagline ‘Living with PKNS’ that is representative of the buyers’ confidence in our properties.

“It represents 150,000 PKNS property owners who have bought and continue to grow with our new properties,” Nasir said.

The properties sale will be held at the PKNS Complex in Shah Alam as well as at all PKNS sales gallery in the state.

Magna Prima Plans RM1bil 5-in-1 Project

by The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Magna Prima Bhd will embark on a mega five-in-one integrated development at Jalan Kuching here this year.

Group managing director Steven Lee Kian Seng said the project, with a gross development value (GDV) of RM1.1bil, would comprise three-storey shop lots, eight-storey signature offices, two blocks of serviced apartments, a boutique hotel and a three-level retail mall.

“We are thrilled to be embarking on this project which is Magna Prima’s biggest project to-date,” he said at the company’s annual dinner in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.

Construction on the 10.23-acre freehold site will be undertaken in four phases, with the first phase to begin in July. The final phase is targeted for completion by the third quarter of 2012. Lee said the project would re-affirm the company’s standing as a major award-winning property contractor and developer in the country.

“When I took over the management of Magna Prima in 2005, I had a heavy responsibility ahead of me. I had to re-energise a demoralised team and motivate them to work with me towards building a new Magna Prima into one of the country’s top property developers, and a prominent brand name in the region.

“Quality, innovation, hard work and teamwork will be the cornerstones of the new Magna Prima as we steer it towards profitability and growth,” he added.On its award-winning “six-star” The Avare in Kuala Lumpur, Lee said it had won the CNBC Asia Pacific Property Award in the high-rise development category.

The Avare, he noted, was being built at a “breathtaking rate of seven floors a month and all 78 units sold within a year.” Magna Prima posted a whopping 944% rise in pre-tax profit to RM37.6mil for the year ended Dec 31, 2007 from RM3.6mil in 2006. Revenue also rose by 326% to RM344.4mil.

Revamped Magna Prima on Stronger Footing

From : The Star Online

SECOND board construction player Magna Prima Bhd is on a much better footing from three years ago when it was making losses.

With a turnaround plan in place after a reshuffling of the top management and the board of directors, the company turned in a net profit of RM26.58mil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2007 (FY07) compared to a net profit of RM119,000 the previous year. Revenue increased by 326% to RM344.44mil.

Magna Prima has three current projects: the 88-acre leasehold Metro Prima in Kepong, a joint venture with landowner Kuala Lumpur City Hall that is almost completed; The Avare, a freehold 41-storey luxury condominium project located in the vicinity of KLCC; and the three-acre leasehold MagnaVille in Selayang comprising three blocks of 22-storey condominiums.

It is also the turnkey contractor for Muafakat Kekal Sdn Bhd, the developer of the Dataran Automobil project in Shah Alam, a joint venture with landowner Selangor State Development Corp. Taken together, all the projects have unbilled sales of RM250mil and ongoing gross development value (GDV) of RM1.7bil.

Magna Prima chief executive officer Lim Ching Choy said the company was now in the second phase of the turnaround.

“The first phase involved streamlining the company's resources into three business divisions and hiring new management teams for the divisions,” he said.

In the second phase, integrated-lifestyle developments, comprising commercial and residential elements, would be the way forward as the company makes plans to transfer to the main board by 2009.

As such, two more projects had been lined up for launch this year that would provide not only greater earnings visibility for the next two to three years but also recurrent income from certain commercial properties that the company would retain, Lim told StarBiz.

The projects would be launched from land that the company acquired late last year in two locations - a 4.78-acre leasehold parcel in Section U1 of Shah Alam and two parcels of freehold land totalling 10.23 acres in Jalan Kuching, Kuala Lumpur.

Now the company is embarking on its second phase. “We don't have a large landbank and we're small compared with the likes of SP Setia Bhd and other listed property developers, so we need to find our niche,” Lim said.

He said the estimated RM135mil Shah Alam project, whose proposed name is Dataran U1 Shah Alam, would be an integrated three-in-one project comprising shops, small office home office units and serviced apartments. “This project will be launched by May and will have a two-acre landscaped park on the third floor of the retail podium,” Lim said.

He said the yet-unnamed Jalan Kuching project would be launched by August. “This will be an integrated five-in-one project comprising 3-storey shops, a 3-storey retail podium, an 8-storey office tower, two blocks of serviced apartments and a 250-room hotel with an estimated GDV of RM1.1bil,” Lim said, adding that the company was looking for a joint-venture partner for the mall, which would be retained for recurrent income.

Both projects are scheduled for completion in 2011.

“We've not gotten into any serious negotiations yet although we have three potential partners in mind, one of which is local. We hope to conclude a deal in the next six months,” Lim said.

He said the mall, with an estimated net lettable area of 1million sq ft, would be modelled along the lines of malls that had been coming up throughout the South-East Asian region in the past two to three years.

Lim said there may be another integrated project on the cards should negotiations for a project located in Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle be successful.

“Hopefully in the next one or two months we'll be able to conclude the negotiations, which will be a joint venture with a landowner,” he said, adding that the project would include a Grade A office tower among its components.

Lim said the company would continue to pursue the strategy of sourcing for projects in matured areas of the Klang Valley. “We'll continue to look for areas in which we can develop high-density projects, this is the model we'll continue to work on, and going forward we'll most likely enter into joint ventures with institutional and private landowners in order not to burden our finances,” he said.

Lim said efforts were being made to balance out the revenue stream from the various divisions in the company. “Property development currently contributes 75% of revenue, but going forward we'll like to see a more balanced revenue contribution and hope that construction will contribute at least half,” he said.

At present, most of the construction jobs were from the property development arm but in the future, as the company's brand-building exercise and quality became better known, more projects would come its way from outside. “We'll continue to concentrate on civil works for our construction arm,” he said.