Tropicana enhances presence in Singapore with sales gallery launch

SINGAPORE: Tropicana Corp Bhd aims to enhance its presence in Singapore and generate exposure for the group’s wide array of projects in Penang, the Klang Valley and Iskandar Malaysia with the launch of its flagship sales gallery in Singapore on Tuesday.

“Singapore has established itself well as an international hub,” said chief executive officer Datuk Yau Kok Seng at the launch. “We recognise the importance for us to have a strategic presence in this marketplace where we can better serve our existing and potential customers from the local community, as well as customers from regional markets such as Hong Kong, Indonesia, China and Australia.”

The newly opened gallery is located on the ground floor of TripleOne Somerset, just steps away from Orchard Road. The physical presence of a showroom focuses on strengthening dialogues between guests and sales consultants. It is also a move away from using shared exhibition centres such as in the Malaysia Property Inc office in Singapore.

“We want to use this space as an impetus for showcasing our properties in private shows,” said marketing and sales executive director Pam Loh.

According to Yau, 40% of buyers in Iskandar Malaysia are Singaporeans, Malaysians or foreigners living in Singapore. The new sales gallery will enable better accessibility and purchases can be done in Singapore itself.

“To Singaporeans I believe our properties are relatively cheap. It’s only about S$200 (RM516) per sq ft (psf) to S$300 psf compared with S$2,000 psf for properties in prime locations,” he said.

When asked about the sales target, Loh declined to disclose the actual figures.

“I don’t think we’re ready to release our sales targets but I believe in this challenging time we have done very well compared to other developers. We have clocked in over RM300 million in less than three weeks into our campaign,” she said.

“Last year we achieved total sales of RM2.3 billion and this year under the present market conditions, we hope to at least maintain or further improve on this,” said Yau.


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 9, 2014.