KUALA LUMPUR: Property developer Glomac Bhd will begin aggressively launching its properties from November onwards, after deferring most of them in the last six months due to cooling measures enforced by the government on the property sector.

“But now, after the recent Budget 2015 announcement, we are more certain. We know what can and cannot be done. We are going to aggressively launch our properties from November onwards,” group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor, better known as FD Iskandar, told reporters after Glomac’s annual general meeting last Friday.

The group has launches worth over RM1 billion in gross development value (GDV) slated for its current financial year ending April 2015 (FY15), 50% of them are landed properties.

Saujana Rawang and Sri Saujana, with a combined GDV of RM222 million, were launched in the first half of FY15. The second half will see the launch of Lakeside Residences, Suria Residen, Saujana KLIA, Glomac Centro V and Plaza Kelana Jaya, with total GDV of about RM852 million.

The group will also launch its Kulaijaya township development in Johor, with RM750 million GDV, by next March. The first two phases of the project will consist of affordable landed properties. Approval for the project is in its final stages and planning permission will be granted by end-2014.

Glomac, with a land bank of some RM8 billion GDV to support its growth over the next seven to eight years, is also looking for more land. The focus is on Greater Kuala Lumpur, but the group does not discount other places with growth opportunities.

Glomac expects FY15 earnings growth to be largely flat due to the dampened sentiments in the property segment. The group previously reported net profit of RM108.38 million in FY14, with RM676.66 million in revenue.

Meanwhile, FD Iskandar, who is also the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association president, said he had written to the prime minister to recommend that houses priced RM500,000 and below to be zero-rated under the goods and services tax to be introduced in April next year.

Glomac closed unchanged at RM1.05 last Friday, which translated into a market capitalisation of RM763.15 million.
 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 20, 2014.