Rental income has soared 10-fold

Sime Darby Property’s newly re-developed building Sime Darby Enterprise Centre boasts a 10-fold increase in rental income and a near 100 per cent occupancy just months after its completion.

Fully owned by Sime Darby Property, the building was officially launched yesterday. It was formerly a warehouse before its re-development in 2005 transformed it into what is now an eight-storey light industrial building located off Jalan Bukit Merah.

Rental income has soared 10-fold from $192,000 originally to $1.5 million.

Sime Darby Enterprise Centre has a total lettable space of about 47,500 square feet and provides 46 units of office area. Already, the newly redeveloped building has attained 97 per cent occupancy just three months after its completion.

A unique feature of the new building’s design is in its floor plates, which can be customised to individual companies’ needs, thus allowing for a wide range of businesses to take up tenancy. Among the tenants are furniture retailer Massimmo and Interconex International Movers Pte Ltd, a company providing moving services.

Sime Darby said the project is in line with the group’s strategy to maximise the yield of its properties by redeveloping them into high-value commercial buildings.

Besides the Sime Darby Enterprise Centre, Sime Darby Property also owns the Orion and Balmoral Hills luxury condominiums and the Darby Park Serviced Apartments.

Sime Darby, which has an asset base of over RM1 billion (S$440 million), has interests in countries like China, Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore, encompassing the property development, property management, investment and hospitality sectors.

Source: The Business Times, 13 April 2007