SUBANG JAYA: UEM Sunrise Bhd will be looking at other “catalysts” to replace the 300-acre loophole in its Gerbang Nusajaya project, following the axing of Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high speed rail (HSR).
UEM Sunrise, whose Gerbang Nusajaya project will house Iskandar Puteri HSR station, is among the biggest HSR beneficiaries considering the size of its landbank and proximity to Singapore.
Managing director and chief executive officer Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib said the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and the station would be put on hold for the time being.
“We have allocated a portion of land for the station of about 70 acres for the station and 300 acres surrounding it to cater for development in the areas around the transit hub. Without the HSR station, we now have to look at other viable option to replace it, I am sure we can come up with something. We will also look at improving connectivity with Singapore,” he said after UEM Sunrise’s annual general meeting today.
“It is very important to have infrastructure linked to it either by rail, road or air as that is how townships come up. We need to look at how we can improve that further,” he said, commenting on how the scrapping of HSR will affect the company’s Gerbang Nusajaya project.
Anwar said the project would see minimal impact in the medium-term but UEM would have to get more clarity on the project before an alternative can be decided upon.
The HSR project, which some have heralded as a “game-changer”, was said to create about 77,000 job opportunities and expand surrounding areas in terms of property development.
Anwar said as far as the company was concerned, it is business as usual at Gerbang Nusajaya.
“We already have connectivity via the second link and it is close enough so the target segment is still the same. We feel there are a lot of opportunities there with or without the HSR station.
“We will do further study on the impact on the long term perspective and we can’t say at this point in time yet what the full impact is going to be,” he added.
Despite a challenging property environment in 2017, UEM Sunrise recorded highest revenue of RM2.9 billion since it s listing in 2008, while doubling its net profit to RM281.1 million from RM147.3 million.
It also exceeded its sales target of RM1.2 billion by 24 per cent, to almost RM1.5 billion.
Anwar said the property developer was expecting a tough outlook and a cautious sentiment is anticipated.
“The demand is still there and mid-market will still be the Malaysians favourite especially in the Klang Valley as well as Johor. The bullishness of developers will most like be controlled this year as they adopt a cautious approach to the market,” he added.