Property now makes up 70% of Sim Lian’s business

SimLian Group says property development now accounts for 70 per cent of its business. And it has at least two residential launches lined up.
Going on sale today is the 338-unit Carabelle on the former Hin Seng Garden site at West Coast Way, which Sim Lian acquired in March 2005.Unit sizes range from 883 to 2,207 sq ft and the average price is $638 psf.
Later this year, Sim Lian will launch a 95-unit development off Surrey Road.
It also plans to launch a residential development in Telok Kurau in 2008, and has projects in Johor and Kuala Lumpur.
In October last year, Sim Lian launched the Housing and Development Board’s pilot project for its Design Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) - the 616-unit Premiere@Tampines, where 5,000 people visited the showflat.
Sim Lian has not decided whether to bid for HDB’s second DBSS parcel at Bendemeer Road. But the group’s executive director Diana Kuik is nevertheless bullish about the mid-tier and mass-market property segments.
Noting that prices at the high end have ‘forced many out of Districts 9, 10 and 11′, she said there are ‘opportunities’ in the mid-tier and mass segments.
Buyers in these segments have also become more discerning. So for Carabelle, Sim Lian intends to offer spa baths with hydrojets.
The group’s construction arm, Sim Lian Construction, was awarded an $85.3 million contract last week to build an entertainment development at Victoria Street.
Despite rising construction costs and increasing competition for labour, Ms Kuik is also upbeat about the construction sector. ‘After eight years of downturn, a lot of the construction firms are now looking at better profit margins,’ she said.
Source: The Business Times, 30 March 2007