Sime Darby Property eyeing more projects in S'pore

SINGAPORE: Malaysia's largest property developer Sime Darby Property Bhd is eyeing for new projects, especially redevelopment projects in Singapore, says managing director Datuk Tunku Putra Badlishah ibni Tunku Annuar.

"We are constantly looking for new projects, but obviously as you see the land here is very scarce and expensive, so we are doing more on redevelopment projects.

"We have old warehouses, we convert them into office buildings, that kind of projects, but we own quite a few buildings in Singapore, so we collect rental," he told Bernama.

For the tenants, Tunku Putra Badlishah cited one of the buildings the company has in Dunearn Road, Bukit Timah.

"We rent out a lot of buildings to our own companies. The Motor Group, for example, is big in Singapore," he said.

Asked whether Sime Darby Property is looking for more land for its future projects here, Tunku Putra Badlishah said most of the land here was standard in that they are mostly government tendered.

"We have tried in the past and we will continue to bid for them," he said.

He said Singapore was a good market for Sime Darby Property.

"We've been successful in Singapore, we have a team here already, so it makes sense for us to continue looking at Singapore," said    Putra Badlishah, who is here for the Building and Construction Authority Awards (BCA Awards 2011), which recognises excellence in the built environment.

It is an annual event to honour and pay tribute to displays of excellence in the built environment in the areas of safety, quality and sustainability and user-friendly.    This year, it marks a few firsts in the building and construction industry.

The Singapore Building and Construction Authority (BCA) introduced new award categories such as The Green Building Individual Awards and the Construction Productivity Awards to mark the evolution of the industry.

Collectively the industry attained a record number of 261 awards including in Green Mark Awards, Green Building Awards and Universal Design Awards.

Sime Darby Property’s unique Idea House has been awarded the much-coveted "Platinum Green Mark" recognition, the first time that the BCA, which is under the Singapore government, is awarding a Platinum recognition in the residential category.

Tunku Putra Badlishah received the award on behalf of the company from the National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, who also launched the inaugural Construction Productivity Award last night.

He said the achievement was very meaningful to Sime Darby Property as it reaffirmed its commitment to building sustainable communities.

Saying that the Idea House was a prototype project, he said: "It is a research and development project because all the learning that we got in this project, we will try to implement and incorporate as many features of the Idea House in our products.

"From the Idea House, we learn how to produce photovoltic cells enough to produce to power the house. We've been implementing a lot of this switches almost six months ago.

"So all of our future projects we launch from now on will have some elements of sustainability," he added. — Bernama