Cornerstones for holistic and sustainable living for the present and future generations.

BY ANGIE NG
angie@thestar.com.my

Desa ParkCity is a well-designed masterplanned community development.

MALAYSIAN townships come in different sizes, shapes and functionalities. Those which were built many decades ago are smaller in size and have simpler types of housing and commercial property compared with those which were completed more recently.

As the years rolled by, townships have taken on more sophisticated look, feel and function, and there are now various types of townships in our midst bearing different names such as integrated townships, university townships, lifestyle-cum-entertainment townships, and gated and guarded townships, among a growing list of names.

The rapid pace in which new townships are being churned out is a reflection of the pace of growth of the local population, the country’s economic growth rate, the people’s changing way of life and their growing sophistication and needs.

After all townships, whether they are residential or commercial enclaves, need to be populated by people in order for them to grow, stay relevant and functional, and contribute to national growth and progress.

VPC Alliance (KL) Sdn Bhd managing director James Wong points out that under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172) Subsection 22 (2A) (a), a township is defined to have a population exceeding 10,000 persons, or covering an area of more than 100 hectares (247.1 acres), or both.

There are townships that have grown by leaps and bounds over the years and continue to thrive as sought-after residential and business addresses, and also those that don’t meet the standards of good and thriving townships. In the process, those townships will lose their fervour, become deserted and wither away.

Well-planned townships in good locations are like wine that will remain evergreen and grow stronger and more robust with age.

These townships have the right characteristics and the necessary growth drivers that will give them the needed push to prosper and continue to appeal to residents and business operators over the years.

Some of the growth drivers that will give a boost to the vibrancy and robustness of townships include the presence of business and industrial activities that weigh in on the economic vibrancy of an area and provide employment to the people, well-occupied corporate offices, quality education institutions including schools, colleges and universities, shopping centres, and industrial complexes.

Townships that have the right attributes of good address, easy accessibility, good infrastructures, active business and economic activities, security, and other social and community amenities have the chance to fare better than others that don’t have these elements.

Besides building good quality property with proper infrastructure, accessibility, green spaces and public facilities, good developers will design their townships according to the principle of sustainability, safety and amenities that will promote holistic living.

With growing concerns on security and safety these days, more people are buying into gated and guarded (G&G) housing projects that are guarded and patrolled by security personnels round the clock, which explain why many new townships have G&G enclaves.

Property consultancy Hall Chadwick Asia chairman Kumar Tharmalingam surmises: “Growth in a township is always about the population. Building space for occupation can only be viable if there are people who want to live in it and pay the required values.”

Savills Malaysia deputy managing director Paul Khong says Malaysian townships comprise mixed development projects on large sizeable tracts of land that are well masterplanned and built as self-contained projects with proper infrastructure and facilities.

These planned community developments with good development concepts are becoming more popular as buyers’ expectations on housing are getting more diverse and sophisticated. And with a more affluent society, higher expectations in terms of aesthetics and lifestyle are now expected. They are now categorised as necessity rather than privilege in the newer developments, Khong says.

“Besides having the right location, good development concepts have now become the differentiation point in sales, as buyers’ expectations of housing are getting more diverse and sophisticated. With society becoming more affluent, there is higher expectation on the aesthetics and lifestyles of housing projects.

“Developers are no longer selling purely brick and mortar products like in the early days but has moved on to selling lifestyle and quality living to buyers. The challenge is to enhance profits through value creation and not purely through cost-cutting measures. This is value creation and it is now superior to the previous cost focus in market competitiveness of townships. Developers can no longer focus on mass housing production in hope of achieving economies of scale and profits,” Khong explains.

The changing trend is to cater to the growing sophistication and affluence of the people and their preference for well planned and holistic developments with comprehensive offerings ranging from F&B, healthcare, shopping, recreation facilities, jogging tracks, well-landscaped parks, neighbourhood mall, private schools and medical centre within a G&G environment.

Internationally acclaimed

Khong gives some notable examples of townships that are well masterplanned, integrated and self-contained, including Bandar Sunway, Desa ParkCity, Kota Kemuning, Bandar Setia Alam, Bukit Jelutong, Ara Damansara and Mutiara Damansara/Damansara Perdana.

He says the 3,000 acre-Kwasa Damansara (currently underway on the former Rubber Research Institute land) will be another mega township development that will be interesting to look out for.

VPC Alliance’s Wong commends developers for building international class townships that have been awarded international accolades such as FIABCI’s Prix d’ Excellence Awards.

Wong says among the well-planned and designed townships in the Klang Valley are Bandar Sunway/Sunway South Quay, Kota Kemuning, Mutiara Damansara, Denai Alam, Bukit Jelutong, Desa ParkCity, Setia Alam and Setia Eco Park.

“These townships have comprehensive land use plan with residences, clubhouse, neighbourhood shopping mall, international school, medical centre, hotel, central park, primary and secondary schools, police station, petrol station and sport facilities. They also have generous landscaping and green areas, multi-tier security system that secures the environment, and wide roads with good accessibility connecting to the major highways,” he adds.

Hall Chadwick’s Kumar says Grade A developers such as SP Setia, Mah Sing, Sime Darby and UEM have sent their staff on trips to modern cities around the world, which has resulted in their new projects having good layout and project plans that meet the standards of modern living comparable to the best internationally.

Over the last 50 years the development efforts of private sector developers in meeting demand for housing have contributed to 66% of Malaysians having their own homes today, the best record in Asia so far, Kumar says.

“Going forward, township development model with a clear distinction between the central business district, accessibility, parks, residential development and public transport, will be the clear winners in the next generation.

“Well-planned townships by the private sector is the most evident in keeping the key elements separate but they are smaller than the regular townships masterplanned by local governments. It is easy to identify them by their precision and capital value appreciation of the properties in those localities,” Kumar adds.

VPC Alliance’s Wong concurs, noting that the layout of the townships is carefully crafted where the commercial areas and town centres, housing estates and public amenities are separated in clusters or precincts. In such a layout design, each residential precinct can have a gated and guarded community and their own district identity and character.

Meanwhile, town centres are located in strategic parts of townships or are accessible to the highways or major roads, so that all the residents and non-residents can access the town centre without having to go into the residential precincts which cuts down traffic congestion.

“The availability of sprawling land in the suburbs at relatively cheap cost have attracted big developers like SP Setia, Sunway, Mah Sing and Sime Darby to engage in sizeable township developments. The exponential rise in population and migration from other towns is leading to higher demand for housing with urban infrastructure,” Wong says.

He says developers should adopt the concept of integrated townships, which promote live-work-play-learn concept under the green and smart township tagline such as Desa ParkCity, Setia Alam and Bandar Bukit Tinggi in Klang.
Khong says with the growing scarcity of land within city limit, new townships are coming up further away in the suburbs.

“We now see developers moving away southwards to Kajang (Tropicana Heights), Kota Kemuning (Tropicana Aman and Eco Santuary), Semenyih (Eco Majestic), Salak Tinggi (Serenia City) and north/westwards to Sungai Buloh (Sime Darby’s Elmina), Shah Alam (Denai Alam and Setia Alam) and beyond,” Khong observes.

Within the city area, many new projects are just redevelopment of old buildings on smallish sites, given that acquisition and amalgamation of contiguous individual sites are generally difficult, time consuming, tedious and expensive.

Developers will ensure that their developments are straddled directly onto some major highway(s) with dedicated interchanges for easy entry and quick access as compensation for the distance.

And with the lower land prices in the suburbs, landed and strata properties can be offered at attractive prices and developers can be more generous with common facilities, amenities, greens lungs, lakes and water features.

Adiva homes in Desa ParkCity won the FIABCI Prix d'Excellence Awards 2010 for the Residential (Low Rise) Category.

The comfort of masterplanned communities
The need for masterplanning townships cannot be over emphasised as it will ensure developers and the approving authorities are on the same page of having townships built according to the guidelines spelled out in local city and council plans so as to cater to the needs of the local populace and future growth of the townships.

They should be proactive in ensuring holistic planning, layout and building processes are followed through, and that sufficient infrastructures including roads, are provided for and are well spaced out. Such undertaking by the authorities and developers will ensure townships are planned holistically, and that developments, population and infrastructures are well thought out and synchronised.

When planning for new townships, projection of population growth to provide for enough infrastructure and facilities will serve the townships well so that they will stay relevant and sustainable for the present and future generations.

An increase in the number of inhabitants will mean the need for more housing, schools, markets, work space, industrial facilities, infrastructure including roads and utilities, and a whole gamut of public facilities will have to be provided for.

Concurring, Khong says the local authorities should have a comprehensive and holistic masterplan for developments in place under their jurisdiction for the next 10 to 20 years.

“These guidelines should be up-to-date and relevant based on the needs of the market, with clearly gazetted structure plans in place to govern new developments,” Khong emphasises.

With their bottomlines at stake, developers will monitor the market closely and when equilibrium point is breached, they will react accordingly, he says.

Wong says as the master layout plan is planned, designed and controlled by the master developer, this ensures an organised and well-planned design township with all kinds of public amenities and facilities available in a township. It ensures efficient land use management system, infrastructure availability, and infrastructure connectivity to roads and highways.

Developers will usually invite other players that are experts on certain property sub-sectors to develop part of the township and invite well-known education institutions and medical institutions for long lease developments or sell the land parcels to them to develop concurrently with the township.

The coming in of the international class education institutions, golf courses and medical institutions, will indirectly enhance the value of the remaining township land. The success of these precincts in the township will boost the confidence of existing residents to continue supporting the developer, whether they are building their property within the township or in another township.

Developing townships will allow for phasing of the development and economies of scale in the development cost.

Balancing act
Kumar acknowledges that masterplanning for a township is a design paved with good intentions.

But, he says, unfortunately the devil is in the details and usually private sector pressure sometimes forces local councils to change town planning use as the public are not fully consulted on the plans.

“The point is we have structured plans and town plans already in our Acts of Parliament. But for some reason, they are never completely adhered to,” he laments.

Kumar points out that planning a township from ground zero is a great idea but human beings, like water, will always find their own level of competency based on the facilities available.

He says Malaysia is one of the few countries where the private sector does the work that local councils are supposed to do and this has risen to a situation where instead of local councils outlining a large area for masterplanning and allowing developers to do parcels thereof, the private sector purchases a land bank, lays out the masterplan, surrenders portions of it back to the local council as land allocated for schools, hospitals, petrol stations, electricity sub-station, police station, local council offices and others.

Furthermore, the developer pays for the access highways, the drainage, sewage, electricity cables, water pipes and after these are installed, they are handed to the utility companies for them to operate. The capital cost to the utility companies is much reduced and fast-tracked.

Drawing comparison from the situation in Ireland and the UK, Kumar says local councils there will not give planning permission until the utility companies have completed the infrastructure right up to the private developers’ property at the cost to the government.

National House Buyers Association honorary secretary-general Chang Kim Loong sounds out the need for more definitive action to ensure enough affordable housing units will be built in new townships to house the people as affordability of property is of major concern.

Chang points out that instead of requiring developers to abide by the ruling of building 30% of low and medium-cost housing of the total units to be built in the entire township, the quota for low- and medium-cost housing should be lowered to around 10% to 20%, and it will be supplemented by a quota of 30% of affordable housing.

These affordable housing units with a minimum built-up of 800 sq ft are to be priced from RM150,000 to RM300,000 each, and up to RM350,000 for those located in prime locations.

(The price of low- and medium-cost housing is controlled by the respective state government and is fixed from RM42,000 to RM99,000 each.)

Stressing that giving more focus to affordable housing will be more practical to serve the changing needs of the people, he says the quota for low- and medium-cost housing may have outlived its relevance given that they are mostly located far away from the city centres and are unsuitable for the residents of such housing who usually depend on public transport to move around.

Moreover, the size of low- and medium-cost housing, which are usually not more than 600 sq ft, is not big enough to house medium-sized to large families.

Many of the housings in locations which are far away from the city centres have been turned into hostels occupied by foreign workers, Chang observes.

The current softened sentiment in the local property market should be a good time for developers with big land bank to plan for more affordably priced housing products to meet the supply shortfall of such housing.