ECER will be good for real estate development, 5 February 2008

Tuesday February 5, 2008
MYT 1:13:41 PM


ECER will be good for real estate development

By ROSLINA MOHAMAD

KUANTAN: Progress in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) will have positive impact on real estate development and prices, especially in the industrial sector, industry experts and property consultants said.

According to Henry Butcher Malaysia's property research director Fahariah Abdul Wahab, there would be obvious positive impact if all ECER's initiatives were implemented smoothly.

She said the move was timely, taking advantage of the good tourism potential and prospects for new hotels and resorts in the region.

``There are a lot of players interested in investing in hotels and I believe before investing, they will be looking at land prices and viability.

``This is because in terms of hotels, the region still lacks good quality hotels on the mainland where you need five- to six-star hotels to attract foreign and business tourists,'' she said Tuesday in a statement released by the ECER Secretariat here.

She added that it was a long term plan and the higher impact would be on industrial development in buildings and land for industrial use.

Ho Chin Soon Research Sdn Bhd said even though there were some constraints in land sales and the impact skewed towards the oil and gas and agriculture sectors, ECER would have positive spillover effects to property prices and development activity in the region.

DPZ Asia's urban design consultant Kamal Ariffin Zahrain said he believed there was good development potential for the region as ECER's masterplan was structured to take full advantage of it.

``The masterplan is well integrated and flexible enough to allow new ideas and changes to be made in future.

``The more integrated the masterplan, the better,'' he added.

As for Kelantan, Kamal Ariffin said Kota Baru's business activity was expected to get a boost from the ECER plans as it also included the build of an integrated city centre there.

At the moment, Kota Baru had no clear city centre with businesses growing robustly and as such, the planned integrated city centre was timely and would fill the gap for businesses to leverage on, he added.

STAR Online