ECER will be good for real estate development

By ROSLINA MOHAMAD
Feb 5, 2008
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.
— The Star Online (Business)