LBS sees growth potential in dormitory town
HOUSING developers are looking for dormitory towns to build townships as city life is becoming too costly for ordinary folks. A “dormitory” town is a small community area that has no major industries. It is a place where residents do little more than live and sleep, choosing to work and play some distance away in the nearby metropolis.
Dengkil, which lies between Cyberjaya and Salak Tinggi in Selangor, is a dormitory town. There are a few developers in the area, including public-listed LBS Bina Group Bhd, which is developing commercial projects, residential developments and townships.
Property consultant Kumar Tharmalingam said more people are moving away from cities to suburbs in order to have better living quality.
Tharmalingam, who serves as senior adviser of Area Management Sdn Bhd, said people look at a location as a place to stay for the rest of their life.
“They are willing to travel far to work because when they go back, the environment is peaceful and less hectic compared to city living.
“(About) 300,000 cars come to Kuala Lumpur every morning and live the city everyday. Kuala Lumpur is a place for business, not a home for most of them as they can’t afford it. Some 10,000 people from Seremban and Kajang commute to Kuala Lumpur on a daily basis. These are people who work in Kuala Lumpur but want to continue living in Seremban and Kajang because of the environment.
“In the southern region, there are about 30,000 people entering Singapore everyday from Johor Baru. They live in Johor Baru and work in Singapore for better quality of life,” he told NST Property.
Tharmalingam said anticipating this demand, developers have been buying land in suburbs to build townships.
GROWTH POTENTIAL
Dengkil is the new upcoming housing development area in the southern region of Selangor.
LBS Bina is developing Kita @ Cybersouth — a 256ha township on Malay reserve land in Dengkil, with a gross development value (GDV) of RM7 billion.
The development is anticipated to comprise terraced houses, townhouses, apartments, shops and commercial lots. Three phases have been launched in the past six months.
Phase 1 and 2, known as Kita Bayu, comprising 1,077 units of double-storey terraced houses and townhouses, were snapped up during a soft launch last November. The terraced houses sold from RM550,000 and townhouses from RM409,900.
The success of Kita Bayu prompted LBS Bina to launch Phase 3, dubbed Kita Harmoni, offering 674 units of double-storey terraced houses priced from RM560,000.
Launching this month is Kita Impian with a GDV of RM316 million. It offers 964 serviced apartments priced from RM250,000 with built-ups of 551 to 901 sq ft, and seven units of shops, priced from RM400,000.
LBS Bina group managing director Tan Sri Lim Hock San said the company had recorded RM320 million in property sales for Phase 1 and 2 of Kita @ Cybersouth.
“We have sold RM320 million worth of properties so far and we are very confident that the demand in this area will be very positive for the remaining phases. You can’t sell expensive houses under the current challenges.
“At Kita @ Cybersouth, we are selling properties from as low as RM338,000, which works out to RM276 per sq ft. The townhouses are priced from RM400,000 and terraced homes start from RM550,000. We are giving a 10 per cent discount and rebates up to June 30, in line with the Home Ownership Campaign.
“This township development will contain mostly residential units. There is no market for commercial. We will have some shops to serve the community,” said Lim said at the official launch of Kita @ Cybersouth sales gallery, here, recently.
He said the houses would be built using industrialised building system (IBS) materials.
“We are using precast system for the township development. This means we are able to build faster and cheaper than the market. Foreign labour cost will be reduced by one-third so there are savings there. The IBS is quality-inspected. We build faster but will not compromise on quality.”
LBS Bina has a RM40 million IBS precast concrete plant in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, operated by its subsidiary, MGB Bhd.
The plant can produce a range of IBS components, including precast concrete and wall panels, slabs, columns and beams.
Lim said the Kita @ Cybersouth township would be developed over the next eight to 10 years.
Phase 1, 2, 3 and the latest launch, Kita Impian, offers a total of 2,722 units with a GDV of RM1.2 billion.