BY S. PUSPADEVI

Wait-and-see: Cheah says the group will watch the market and study the revisions to the Strata Title Act and its impact.

PETALING JAYA: Property and construction group Sunway Bhd that has unbilled sales of RM2.5bil as of March, will adopt a wait-and-see approach and plan its property launches accordingly amid the soft property market.

Its property division managing director Sarena Cheah said due to the uncertain market sentiments and the revisions made to the Strata Title Act 1985, the group expected the upcoming property launches to be delayed.

But the group would keep its total sales target of RM1.7bil for 2015.

“The new Strata Management Act is good in the sense it gives clarity to consumers, but it will have an impact on our property launches in terms of timing.

“So, we will watch the market and study the revisions made to the act and its impact.

“But in such a soft and cyclical market, our recurring income from our diversified property investments serves as a buffer for the group, and makes up one third of its profits,” Cheah told reporters during a briefing on the group’s second half property launches here yesterday.

The Government’s move to amend the Strata Title Act 1985 is to enable simultaneous issuance of strata titles and vacant possession to property buyers.

The Act, now known as Strata Management Act (SMA), will ensure prompt delivery of titles to property owners, apart from improving the housing delivery system efficiency.

On the upcoming launches, the group is expected to launch about five property developments in the third and fourth quarters of this year, namely Sunway Gandaria, Sunway Velocity, Sunway Geo Residence 3, Casa Kiara 3 and Sunway Emerald Residence.

These have a combined gross development value (GDV) of about RM1.5bil.

Also due to the property cooling measures and strict lending conditions, Cheah said the group hoped to achieve RM500mil in sales or better in the second half of the year since it had clinched that number in the first half.

Cheah said its strategy going forward was to focus on boosting its investments like building malls and hospitals.

She said the group was also exploring “buyer gets buyer” schemes and organising a “mini” campaign to attract buyers.

“The demand is certainly there among home owners, especially for those who want to upgrade.

“They typically look for good locations and concepts.

“While every business is affected in a time like this and although there are concerns of oversupply, I think the competition is good, as the stronger ones will emerge,” she added.

The property arm’s total value of assets under management as at Dec 31, 2014 stood at over RM7bil.