Property market still growing

Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum, group managing director/group chief executive, Mah Sing Group Bhd

TEFD: How would you rate your company’s performance in 2010?
Leong: It was a challenging but rewarding year as we managed to deliver and even exceed our sales target. For the first nine months of 2010, we managed to chalk up RM1.2 billion in sales, which represents growth of nearly 100% from the RM615 million sales achieved in the same period in 2009.

We were the most active developer in terms of land banking with 10 transactions valued at RM756 million. These new land deals have a combined gross development value (GDV) of about RM4 billion and in total, we have about RM9.4 billion remaining GDV and unbilled sales that should last the group for the next seven years.

We recorded RM87 million in net profit for the first nine months of 2010, a 26% improvement compared with RM69 million a year ago.
We received 10 awards for corporate performance and projects in 2010 as opposed to eight awards in 2009, and this serves to motivate us to do even better in 2011.

We were named Malaysia’s Top 10 developers in The Edge’s Property Awards, and we were recently also named Best Company in Malaysia for Corporate Governance in the Asiamoney Polls 2010.


How do you perceive the outlook for your company and industry in 2011?
The property market did well in 2010 and we think its performance is sustainable for 2011 as the current buying pattern is backed by fundamentals of the economy and purchasers.

Property investments have proven to be a reliable asset class and the key drivers that will continue to sustain and drive this sector will be low unemployment, strong economic growth and improved housing affordability due to low mortgage rates. The financial system is strong, flushed with liquidity and the banks are accommodative in lending.

We intend to continue building our brand in the mid- to high-end property market. We have 33 projects, of which five are completed, 18 ongoing and 10 are new projects in the planning stage. This makes us one of Malaysia’s most diversified property players with a full range of property projects, be they residential, commercial or industrial.


What do you think are the challenges ahead?
Scarcity of choice land in prime locations, rising land costs, rising construction cost, access to labour and competition would be the main challenges.


What is your wish list for 2011?
We welcome the implementation of the Economic Transformation Programme as well as high impact projects like the MRT, Greater Kuala Lumpur and other infrastructure projects.

These are expected to have strong impact in terms of economic growth, job creation, improving the standards of living and increase the income level of our people.

These initiatives will attract foreign direct investment, expand our growth and increase purchasing power, as well as improve our infrastructure and accessibility. All these could potentially improve property values further.