This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 5, 2018 - November 11, 2018
Winner | Savanna Executive Suites @ Southville City | Mah Sing Group Bhd
Various areas on the southern side of the Klang Valley have continued to blossom over the years due to their proximity to the federal administrative centre of Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur International Airport. One of them is Bangi, where Mah Sing Group Bhd’s 428-acre Southville City is located.
The developer’s largest township in the Klang Valley has a total gross development value of RM11.1 billion. There are plans to build 15,000 houses — including townhouses as well as link and superlink houses — and commercial properties, such as shopoffices, corporate offices and a mall, in the freehold mixed-use development.
Phase 1 comprises Savanna Executive Suites (serviced apartments launched in March 2014; take-up rate: 98%), Savanna Lifestyle Shops (2-storey shoplots launched in September 2013; take-up rate: 97%) and Boulevard Lifestyle Shops (3-storey shops sold en bloc). The retail units have been completed with vacant possession, while the apartment units are still in the midst of delivery of vacant possession.
Phase 2 — Avens Residence, which offers 2½ and 3-storey link houses — was launched in June 2014. The developer then launched high-rises Cerrado and Sensa Residence in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
Mah Sing decided to develop Savanna Executive Suites — the recipient of The Edge Malaysia Affordable Urban Housing Excellence Award 2018 — as it saw a need for affordable apartments in the area. The award recognises outstanding affordable housing projects for the middle-income group that are undertaken wholly by property developers in the country.
The RM1.3 billion Savanna Executive Suites sits on a 27.8-acre tract. It has eight blocks and 3,192 units in total, with built-ups of 956 to 1,017 sq ft and an average launch price of RM380 psf. Some 98% of the project have been sold.
The maintenance fee is 25 sen psf, and facilities include a yoga deck, swimming pool, wading pool, aqua gym, children’s playground, barbecue area, reflexology path, gymnasium and dining pavilion.
Chief operating officer Everlyn Khaw tells City & Country that the affordable price tag led to the development receiving a good response, and all eight blocks were launched within a year.
“Savanna Executive Suites is the first affordable housing to be sold in the area. In the first launch [in 2014], we had 1,068 units and attracted about 2,500 guests. All units were booked within eight hours,” she says.
“We saw a lot of owner-occupiers who were looking for a first home that was affordably priced, and there were also investors who put their money in this new township due to the affordability. So, in the early launches, the buyers were a mix of investors and owner-occupiers. In the later blocks, we saw a lot more owner-occupiers such as newlyweds, young couples, young families with children and retirees.”
Nevertheless, developing Savanna Executive Suites has not been without its challenges. Khaw says one of the major considerations for the project was to be able to sell the units at an affordable price while still providing all the necessary facilities and lush landscape.
“Thus, we needed to manage our budget well and one way was to select a suitable site in Southville City that would minimise earth excavations and build on the natural slope to reduce and control the construction cost,” she explains.
“The other challenge was to ensure that we completed and handed over all 3,192 units at the same time. We had to make sure that the right pricing, product and marketing strategies were in place so that we could sell these units. We had to manage not only our cash flow properly but also the work progress.”
All the hard work has paid off as Savanna Executive Suites has been well received. In the first launch (involving three blocks), the units had an average price of RM370 psf. In the subsequent launch (two blocks) within the same year, the average price increased 8% to RM400 psf.
The final three blocks were launched a year later at an average price of RM480 to RM500 psf. According to Khaw, units launched in the later phases have different features to distinguish them from those launched earlier.
“Based on the current price in the subsale market, we see a jump of 30% compared with the price in the first launch,” she says.
Khaw believes the success of a project depends not only on the products on offer but also the township it is in and the nearby amenities.
Amenities around Savanna Executive Suites include parks and gardens such as Summit Park, Linear Park, Hill Park and Riverside Walk. There are also retail components such as dining and shopping facilities.
The development is located near various educational institutions such as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa.
“A unique selling point of Southville City is its accessibility … it is connected to major highways, with a dedicated interchange from the North-South Expressway to the township. We completed the interchange and handed over our first product at the same time,” says Khaw.
The completion of the new interchange shortened Southville City’s distance from the Kuala Lumpur city centre to 19km, compared with 25km previously. The interchange also reduced the township’s distance to the neighbouring districts of Dengkil, Sepang and Semenyih.
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