S P Setia hands over Fulton Lane in Melbourne

MELBOURNE (Aug 7): S P Setia Bhd handed over its maiden Australian development, Fulton Lane in Melbourne today, two months ahead of schedule. The development is 100% sold with fully-settled development loans of A$184 million (RM533 million) as at July 22, 2015.

“It fills our hearts with so much pride and joy seeing the completion and delivery of Fulton Lane amidst positive feedbacks from happy purchasers, and that has always been our value proposition to our customers, which is to deliver quality products and to produce excellence in customer service,” said S P Setia acting president and CEO, Datuk Khor Chap Jen during the handover ceremony today.

Over 200 guests including purchasers, business associates and staff as well as the architect who designed the development, Karl Fender of Fender Katsalidis Architects, attended the ceremony.

“I had seen S P Setia developments in Malaysia and was taken by the quality and amenities that they created in their projects for their purchasers. This attitude was carried on to the Fulton Lane project and we are all proud and privileged to have been involved in realising the dream and vision of S P Setia with Fulton Lane,” said Fender.

Fulton Lane, which sits on the site of a former open-air car park, is located just across the road from Melbourne’s famous Queen Victoria Market. The A$480 million development offers 301 luxury apartments in a 28-storey block and 503 units in a 45-storey block. Built-ups range from 500 to 1,474 sq ft with options of studios, 1-bedroom, 1-bedroom+study, 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom layouts. The units were priced from A$355,000 to A$1.346 million and some 50% of the buyers were local.

S P Setia will retain the retail space (net lettable area of 1,400 sq m) on the ground floor of the two towers for recurring income. Fulton Lane is also an eco and sustainable development and has been awarded 4-star Certified Rating in Ecologically Sustainable Development.

According to James Ng, an owner at Fulton Lane, he bought a unit following a recommendation from a friend who is an ardent follower of S P Setia in Malaysia.

“I checked out S P Setia and found that it is renowned for its reliability in its delivery and that is important to me as a first-time purchaser of a developer which I do not have much knowledge on. I must say that I am truly glad I took my friend’s advice as Fulton Lane is now a landmark here and I am a proud owner,” said Ng.

Meanwhile, the construction of S P Setia’s second project in Australia, Parque also in Melbourne, is on track. It was launched in September 2013 and is fully sold. The A$252 million Parque is located on a 9,301 sq m site of heritage-protected land in St Kilda Road. It offers 332 one to 3-bedroom apartments and penthouses. Prices range from A$390,000 to A$3.35 million.

According to Khor, S P Setia is actively looking for sites in Australia and has seen a number of them already.

“We have been looking but have yet to find a suitable one. We should be able to make an announcement in the next few months. While our main focus is still in Melbourne, we are also looking at cities such as Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and to a lesser extent, Perth,” said Khor.

After five years in Melbourne, Australians are more confident of S P Setia’s brand and this in turn is giving the developer more confidence to look into building landed homes in the suburbs, added Khor.

Fulton Lane has made a profit of A$145 million, which will contribute strongly towards its sales target of RM4 billion for FY2015.

As at April 30, 2015, S P Setia has 30 ongoing projects with 4,198.35 acres of undeveloped landbank and RM71.27 billion in gross development value.