This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 9, 2018 - February 15, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway Bhd, whose property arm intends to launch RM2 billion worth of residential projects this year compared with RM1.1 billion total worth last year, is confident that the property market would not “collapse” over the year.

“We don’t foresee a collapse [in the property market] unless the global market [collapses] but we foresee it to slow down and should only be going up in the matter of time.

“Looking at the overall economy, it is still on the growth side as the employment rate is still healthy and businesses are still growing. With that it is a very good fundamental that we can rely on,” said Sarena Cheah, the managing director of Sunway Bhd’s property division for Malaysia and Singapore, at a media briefing yesterday.

Commenting on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) overnight policy rate hike by 25 basis points to 3.25% last month, Cheah said it was a wise decision made by the central bank for the country.

“Typically the interest rate will go up and down but it is important for us to see what is resilient. Judging by that, people are expecting another one [interest-rate hike] perhaps.

“This is where I believe BNM is wise in watching what’s happening in the country,” she said.

Projects that the company intends to launch include Sunway Citrine Lakehomes, Sunway Onsen Suites, Sunway Geo, apartments in Sunway Velocity TWO and Sunway Wangsa Maju, designer shops in Sunway Wellesley, condominiums in Sunway Tianjin Eco City in China and Sunway Rivercove Residence in Singapore.

“We will continue to focus our efforts on our integrated development and townships, where we have seen good take-up rates for most of our launches,” she said, adding that the group aims to achieve about RM1.3 billion in sales this year.

Additionally, the group also plans to launch about RM610 million worth of new investment properties, including healthcare, commercial, hospitality, education and investment assets, in the developer’s townships and major integrated developments.

“This year our property launch is about RM2 billion and we have about RM610 million worth of investment properties, which we will build to own and manage. We are not selling those properties,” she said.

At the same time, Sunway Property has launched its new Under The SUN Certainty+ financing campaign to offer purchasers and investors a convenient way of participating in the group’s growing communities.

The campaign features a low down payment, cash rewards during construction period, guaranteed loan by the group, deferred payment, voluntary exit plan and differentiated sum instalments by the developer.

“We will also look to help new homeowners capitalise on the many opportunities we are offering to be part of our growing and vibrant communities,” she said.

Despite a subdued property outlook, Cheah said the group is also on the lookout for more land bank, after it secured 37.4 acres (15.14ha) last year.

Currently, the group’s land bank stands at 3,305 acres, with a total gross development value of RM53 billion. Some 56% of the land bank is located in Johor, another 30% in Klang Valley and 6% in Penang.