27/03/2025

PROPERTY THURSDAY | MAR 27, 2025

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SP Setia delivers robust financial results for FY24

Call to allow only licensed agents to handle rentals KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia could reduce the incidence of crime and protect landlords from losing their investments by insisting all rental transactions are conducted by licensed real estate agents who can run document checks and share blacklists of criminal tenants. This is according to Muhazrol Muhamad, head of Bumiputera segment for real estate company IQI. His comments came in reaction to statements by Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, who suggested police may need to prosecute landlords for criminal conspiracy or abetment when their tenants break the law. These criminal activities can include operating fraudulent call centres, mining bitcoin, or operating brothels or gambling dens. “The main challenge is that too many parties can handle rentals. Today, home owners can rent out their units directly through platforms like Mudah, iBilik, or Facebook without involving a licensed real estate agent,” said Muhazrol, adding that many rental transactions are man aged by unregistered agents, middlemen, or sublet companies, making enforce ment extremely challenging. That is far from the ideal of requiring registered real estate agents or real estate negotiators under their supervision to handle leases. “If the government aims to simplify rental property regulation, only regis tered real estate agencies should be allowed to manage rentals. This would ensure regulations are enforced by trained entities, protecting individual landlords and tenants,” he said. This would reduce the risk of properties being misused for criminal activities. Tropicana rewards TwinPines Serviced Suites purchasers GENTING HIGHLANDS: The 112-acre Tropicana Grandhill is one of Tropicana Corporation Bhd’s signature townships in Genting Highlands, Pahang. On Feb 22, Tropicana Grandhill hosted the TwinPines Bonanza Grand Draw, rewarding TwinPines Serviced Suites buyers who made purchases during the campaign period from Aug 15, 2023, to Sept 30, 2024. Guests enjoyed a fun day with a lion dance, drum performance, light refreshments, and mini games. The event ended with a lucky draw, where 15 winners took home prizes totaling RM476,000. The grand prize was a studio unit from TwinPines Serviced Suites worth RM461,000, while others won Samsung electronics worth RM15,000. TwinPines Serviced Suites is the first residential phase of Tropicana Grandhill, featuring two 55- and 56-storey towers on 3.57 acres of prime land. With a GDV of RM1.01 billion, it offers 1,443 fully furnished units in 13 layouts, ranging from 379 sq ft to 1,330 sq ft. TwinPines Serviced Suites is located near Gohtong Jaya’s dining spots, the Awana SkyWay, Resorts World Genting, and Genting Highlands Premium Outlets, with Kuala Lumpur just a 40-minute drive away.

KUALA LUMPUR: SP Setia Bhd recently announced outstanding financial results for FY24, demon strating robust financial strength and strategic growth across its operations. SP Setia reported profit before tax exceeding RM1 billion and profit after tax of RM631 million for FY24, its highest profit in the past five years. This strong performance has allowed it to double its dividend to shareholders, signifying a com mitment to delivering value and confidence in its prospects. SP Setia surpassed its sales target for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2024, achieving a commendable RM5.02 billion in sales against a target of RM4.4 billion, accom plished in a challenging economic environment. Revenue recorded at RM5.29 billion in FY24, a 21% increase from last year. Additionally, S P Setia has successfully reduced its borrowings by RM1.6 billion, result ing in a lower net gearing ratio of 0.35x from 0.49x for the period in review, underscoring its effective execution of debt reduction stra tegies.

mercial developments. “Our performance in FY24 showcases SP Setia’s resilience, strategic foresight, and operational excellence. The doubling of our dividend is a testament to our strong financial standing and com mitment to maximising share holder value. “We are excited about the future and the growth opportunities that lie ahead,” said SP Setia president and CEO Datuk Choong Kai Wai. The group has a robust sales pipeline supported by 42 ongoing projects. Additionally, the group boasts a remaining land bank of 5,451 acres and an effective re maining GDV of RM128.59 billion. SP Setia’s international ventures in Vietnam and Australia are on a growth trajectory, and both markets are expected to contribute to overall group performance. Atlas Melbourne, which was recently launched in Q4’24, has achieved an encouraging take-up rate. The group is ready to surge forward with a RM4.8 billion sales target for 2025. improved market condition. The improvement seen at the national level is evident across all property sectors with residential transactions growing by +4%, commercial at +13.6%, industrial at +7.7%, agricultural at +4.1% and development land & others at +9.7%. The growth momentum seen in 2024 reflected a rising market confidence coupled with the supportive government policies and various incentives, despite global uncertainties and challenging environment. The performance is considered very encouraging as buyers’ sentiment is still mixed and being cautious – as many continue to face the challenges of rising costs and sluggish income growth amidst affordability concerns. Due to strong transaction growth, the number of unsold completed properties, or overhang properties, has decreased. Looking at the largest component of overhang units, the residential overhang decreased by 10.3% to 23,149 units (2023: 25,816 units), while serviced apartments overhang dropped by 6.1% to 19,564 units (2023: 20,825 units). As the residential and serviced apartments units, plus Soho units, are mostly purchased for living accommodation purpose, we collectively classify them as dwelling units. As a whole, the overhang statistics for these dwelling units (residential, serviced apartments and Soho) have shown a decline of 7.7% from the previous year, amounting to 44,585 units valued at RM30.79 billion in 2024.

o Profit before tax exceeds RM1 billion, sales surpass target, company doubles dividend to shareholders

portfolio growth. Unleashing value in the South ern region, SP Setia continues to drive profitability growth from the strong residential and commercial properties demand in Johor while maintaining the momentum on the group’s industrial expansion plans. Up North, SP Setia’s flagship Northern township – Setia Fontaines in Bertam, Penang – is actively expanding the group’s industrial footprint by the proposed rezoning at least 300 acres for industrial development. Given its proximity to the Kulim Hi-tech Park, this strategic move aligns with the increasing demand for industrial land in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia, which is expected to bring in positive spillover effects in the neighbouring residential and com

The group’s sales breakdown reveals that local projects contri buted RM4.24 billion, accounting for approximately 84% of total sales, while international projects added RM785 million. SP Setia’s long-held reputation in townships and resi dential developments continues to be the group’s mainstay, contri buting consistently to its perfor mance. In the Central region, SP Setia is leveraging the unique geographical advantage of its two cross-develop ment segments located just 4km apart: the maturing crown jewel integrated residential township Bandar Setia Alam and Setia Ala man Industrial Park. The dynamic road connectivity and ready infra structure serving the two develop ments are key catalysts to the new frontier in SP Setia’s industrial

Value of transactions in 2024 hits new high, tops RM200b KUALA LUMPUR: The Valuation & Property Services Department under the Finance Ministry released their Property Market Report for 2024 recently which revealed a historical high of property transaction activities in the country. 420,545 transactions across all property subsectors, signifying a higher growth rate of 5.4% from the previous year. even significant level, breaching RM200 billion for the first time in history. The total value amounting to RM232.3 billion translates to a year on-year growth of 18%.

This was the highest in the past decade, and the third highest since the turn of the millennium. The other two higher periods were in 2011 and 2012, during the last Malaysian property market peak where it recorded 430,403 and 427,520 transactions respectively. The total value of property transactions for 2024 showed an

The total value of transactions includes, amongst others, transaction records based on Sale & Purchase Agreements from primary sales by developers which may have included prices before discounts and rebates. Nevertheless, the record high figures, even after these adjustments would still be significant – indicating an

The full year data for the Malaysian property market confirmed the strong market performance as highlighted last month by Rahim & Co in their Annual Publication Release. In 2024, the total volume (number) of property transactions in Malaysia was

Despite a tough global scene, growth picked up in 2024 thanks to rising market confidence, government policies and incentives. – PEXELS PIX

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