This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 9, 2018

SHAH ALAM: Sime Darby Property Bhd has lined up a slew of new product launches in its City of Elmina here for this year, including an affordable housing development under the state government programme Rumah Selangorku.

Sime Darby Property chief operating officer Datuk Wan Hashimi Albakri Wan Ahmad Amin Jaffri (pic) said the new launches include semi-detached units in Denai Alam and double-storey linked units in Elmina Green phase 1B.

“The state-controlled affordable housing units will be priced below RM270,000, while for our affordable housing products, we are working towards pricing it below RM400,000,” he told reporters after the launch of the Elmina interchange yesterday.  

The affordable housing development is slated to be launched in June.

The new Elmina Interchange connects the City of Elmina to the Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE) with enhanced accessibility to various areas of the city and surrounding locations.

The Elmina interchange was built by Projek Lintasan Kota Holdings Sdn Bhd (Prolintas), a company wholly-owned by Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), and completed in 2005 when the GCE was opened to the public. Sime Darby Property then constructed internal network roads connecting the townships of Denai Alam and Bukit Subang to Elmina West at the City of Elmina and leading to the interchange and subsequently to the expressway.

The total cost of the whole internal road network infrastructure was approximately RM66 million.

In addition to enhancing access to the City of Elmina, the interchange is set to help resolve traffic congestion at the Denai Alam and Bukit Subang townships during peak hours by improving traffic dispersion.

The City of Elmina is a 5,000-acre (2,023ha) township development by Sime Darby Property, with an estimated gross development value of RM27 billion, covering Denai Alam, Bukit Subang, Elmina East and Elmina West. Wan Hashimi said the development now covers up to about 30% of the whole master plan, and will take 10 to 15 years to be fully completed.

“For affordable housing, we’re not competing with the other developers in terms of pricing, because there’s nothing much you can do with the pricing. We believe that we have got something better to offer in terms of the attributes of our products. It really is value for money,” he added.