I-Berhad may team up with Huawei Malaysia to launch self-driving buses in i-City

 By Sharen Kaur - Published in NST Property, December 17, 2021  

Huawei Enterprise Malaysia managing director David Li (right) and I-Berhad executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong (centre) during a recent meeting at i-City. Courtesy image

This was revealed during a recent meeting at i-City with Huawei Enterprise Malaysia managing director David Li, and I-Berhad executive chairman Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong.

Huawai is expected to develop the self-driving bus system for I-Berhad, the developer of the RM10 billion smart city project, which began in 1995.

This could happen as early as 2024, when the i-City LRT3 station in Seksyen 7, Shah Alam, opens.

The community that work and live in i-City will be able to move around via the autonomous shuttle services. Similarly, the autonomous shuttle will also serve visitors who alight from the i-City LRT3 station, heading to i-City. 

i-City, a self-sustaining smart city, has gained traction, with the number of residents, knowledge workers, and visitors growing at an exponential rate. As the population grows, i-City will continue to cater to the specific needs of its tenants, residents, and other stakeholders, particularly by improving public facilities and increasing provision for more.

The autonomous shuttle service is convenient for visitors to move around within i-City, be it for business or leisure.

The shuttle service will connect the important nodes between the central business district (CDB) in i-City, namely Central i-City Mall, DoubleTree by Hilton, and CentralWalk, to Mercu Maybank corporate tower. In addition, it will also serve the residential properties and the theme park.

With the surge in the corporate population at Mercu Maybank, which includes Maybank with approximately 1,400 employees, Prudential, and some other MNCs, and the growing residential population, they will all gain from the extended public transport.

The use of public transportation will significantly reduce traffic congestion and also the carbon footprint within i-City as part of its green initiative agenda.

Singapore announced the launch of autonomous bus services for the first time, in a bid to drive sustainable autonomous vehicle solutions within the country.

Commuters can take driverless buses in two areas of Singapore, in the first such trial since the Republic began experimenting with autonomous vehicles on the roads in 2015.

The new services, headed by ST Engineering, and operated by SMRT and SBS Transit, will run in Singapore Science Park 2 near Haw Par Villa and on Jurong Island.

Meanwhile, given Huawei's extensive experience in smart city solutions and also expertise in data centres, the company fits the bill to accelerate i-City's advancement to the next stage of rolling out other smart features, which includes expanding into Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered services, and the deployment of 5G (5th generation mobile network) technology.

i-City is currently served by 400G-capable network connectivity powered by Huawei, boosting its credentials as a smart city.

i-City is currently served by 400G-capable network connectivity powered by Huawei, boosting its credentials as a smart city and next-level information and communications technology (ICT)-based urban development.

The timely deployment of 5G will enable i-City to gain a significant edge in the rolling out of future technologies and the explosion of its service-based economy.

In the works for I-Berhad is the setting up of a new data centre park. The developer has the approval to build two more data centres with space of 100,000 sq ft each on a 2.43-hectare plot of freehold land, targeting multinational corporations (MNCs), financial companies, and information technology firms.

Currently, the purpose-built Tier-3 certified data centre in i-City, which was launched in 2008 is running at full capacity.

Huawei's agenda to accelerate Malaysia's digital economy transformation can also enhance i-City's future growth.

The company recently upgraded its Huawei Customer Solution Innovation Centre (CSIC), which was officially launched on November 23 by Prime Minister Datuk Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The CSIC was created as an information and communications technology (ICT) hub and Center of Excellence to drive the industry's open ecosystem and accelerate Malaysia's digital economy transformation.

 Huawei's 5G solutions for smart cities and autonomous vehicles are among the B2B (business 2 business) solutions on display at CSIC.

Rehda: Banks should expand their step-up financing and other funding options to improve homeownership

 By Sharen Kaur - Published in NST Property, December 16, 2021 

sharen@nst.com.my

End-financing is still a major issue in homeownership, according to the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association Malaysia (Rehda).

According to the Rehda Property Industry Survey first half (H1) 2021, 88 per cent of respondents reported end-financing issues in H1 2021.

The top three factors were ineligibility due to buyer income, a lower financing margin, and insufficient financial documentation.

Rehda and the Rehda Institute hope that banks will expand their step-up financing and other alternative funding options to improve Malaysian homeownership.

"As the economy is recovering, we also recognised that the Covid-19 has impacted people differently especially in terms of their access to financing. Most financial institutions are still very risk-averse and too stringent in their assessment criteria to the detriment of prospective house buyers, looking for a home," Rehda president Datuk Soam Heng Choon said in a joint press conference today.

Rehda and the Rehda Institute are hoping that the government will extend the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC), which ends this month, to help with property sales and marketing.

Due to the soft market sentiment and pressure from external market forces, sales and marketing activities are facing a number of challenges.

Datuk NK Tong, deputy president of Rehda Malaysia, said an extension of the Home Ownership Campaign would allow prospective home buyers to purchase a home as their jobs and income improved over time. File Photo

Datuk NK Tong, deputy president of Rehda Malaysia, said an extension of the HOC would be beneficial because it would allow prospective home buyers to purchase a home as their jobs and income improved over time.

"The rakyat looking at their first home or home upgraders that are employed in certain sectors and industries that are still heavily affected by the pandemic, for example from airlines, tourism industries, their hopes, and dreams will vanish due to their inability to get a loan.

"Hence, those whose income was still affected due to the pandemic such as the underemployed and unemployed, as well as those whose income has reduced and those working in the gig economy due to lack of proper documentation, find it challenging to obtain a loan.

"The above could be due to the financial institution's risk committee imposing more stringent valuation on new property launched and also the secondary sub-sale market," he said.

Tong also said that Rehda Institute will investigate developing a Digital Marketing Transformation Initiative (DMTI), which is a digital marketing certification programme for 2022, in collaboration with relevant universities and other partners to assist property developers and the sales and marketing ecosystem in their transition to digitalisation.

This will be implemented in response to a preliminary finding from Rehda Institute's Industrial Marketing and Sales Survey last month, in which 49 per cent of respondents said the impact of digital marketing spending and digitalisation was found to be significant.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents said the impact was somewhat impactful, 18 per cent said it was most impactful, and four per cent and one per cent said it was less impactful and least impactful, respectively.

Tong said the findings came about after one of the current issues faced in marketing and sales of properties in Malaysia was highlighted.

"There is still very slow and lack of digital technology adoption from property developers in Malaysia, particularly the medium-sized to smaller developers. During the lockdown period and due to Covid-19, the developers are unable to embrace digitalisation especially relating to marketing and sales activities, particularly medium-sized to smaller property developers outside Klang Valley. This has had an impact on homeownership in those geographical areas," he said.

The Central i-City mall expects increased revenue as a result of new tenants, including the arrival of Maybank

By Sharen Kaur - Published in NST Property, December 3, 2021 

Central i-City mall opened in Mach 2019

sharen@nst.com.my

Central Plaza i-City Real Estate Sdn Bhd anticipates that its flagship Central i-City mall in Selangor's capital city will generate more than RM50 million in revenue in 2023 as it signs new tenants and renews leases that expire next year.

The mall, which has about 350 retail stores, kiosks, and pop-up shops, is currently 87 percent occupied, according to Anthony Dylan, the company's chief operating officer.

He expects the mall to be 95 per cent occupied by next year, with the remaining five per cent kept as a buffer for new brands looking to enter. 

"We were aiming for 95 per cent occupancy in the first year of operation based on our three-year plan, and we achieved 87 per cent despite Covid. We are only seven to eight per cent short. New tenants are preparing to move in as we speak. TGIF is opening today (December 3)," he told NST Property.

Sogo Department Store (200,000 sq ft), TGV Cinemas (40,000 sq ft), which houses Southeast Asia's largest Samsung Onyx LED cinema screen, and Village Grocer (40,000 sq ft) are the mall's anchor tenants. They collectively occupy 30 per cent of the mall's current tenanted space.

Central Plaza i-City is a joint venture between Thailand's largest retail property developer, Central Pattana Public Company Ltd (CPN), which owns 60 per cent, and i-City Properties Sdn Bhd, an affiliate of I-Berhad, which owns 40 per cent.

I-Berhad is the master developer of the RM10 billion i-City, a smart technology city with a global financial hub at its heart. Within the financial hub is Menara Sumurwang, DoubleTree by Hilton i-City (opening mid-2022), Central Walk, the i-City Convention Centre, residences, and the mall.

i-City also includes a Best Western Hotel, SoHos, and serviced apartments, a Tier 3 data centre, cyber office suites, and a CNN accolade leisure theme park.

Anthony Dylan, chief operating officer of Central Plaza i-City Real Estate Sdn Bhd, said that the arrival of Maybank and other corporate players will boost retailer sales and foot traffic at Central i-City Mall. Courtesy image

Maybank's entry to i-City will boost retailer sales and foot traffic at the mall

According to Anthony, the current monthly foot traffic at Central i-City mall ranges from 800,000 to 1.2 million.

He anticipates that when the DoubleTree by Hilton i-City opens in the middle of next year and Menara Sumurwang is fully leased; this figure will increase, as well as retailer sales.

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), Malaysia's largest bank by assets, will be the new anchor tenant for Menara Sumurwang, a Grade A Green Building Index (GBI) smart office tower.

Maybank will occupy 14 floors at the smart office tower as the group's permanent alternate office location. By the first half of 2022, the office space will accommodate about 1,400 employees.

The 320,000-square-foot Menara Sumurwang will be renamed Mercu Maybank.

With Maybank coming in, the 33-story tower has achieved an 80 per cent take-up rate within the first year of completion, despite the pandemic.

I-Berhad and Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, multinational corporations, and international logistic players currently occupy the Multimedia Super Corridor-status smart office tower.

Other factors, such as the growing workforce and residents in i-City, as well as the future LRT 3 i-City station, which will be operational in 2023, will contribute to the mall's growth, according to Anthony.

"With things settling down, we expect more people to visit the mall. The mall's location on Shah Alam and Klang border give it the advantage of being in the middle of two large markets. We built this mall so that the people of Shah Alam and Klang could be proud of it. Central i-City mall is the closest to them, with new offerings and multiple F&B and fashion brands," he said.

Central i-City Mall is Central Pattana Public Company Ltd’s flagship property in Malaysia.

Central i-City is CPN's first international mall, with the largest net lettable area in Shah Alam (close to one million square feet).

The mall cost RM850 million to build and had its soft opening on March 23, 2019.

The Sultan of Selangor, HRH Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, did the official opening on June 15, 2019.

According to Anthony, the mall earned RM40 million in revenue during its first year of operation (March 2019 to March 2020), exceeding the company's target.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the various Movement Control Orders imposed in 2020, the mall earned RM40 million in revenue during its second year of operation (March 2020 to March 2021), which also exceeded the company's target, he said.

"In our current third year of operation, we intend to match what we achieved last year, so there will be no revenue growth because SOPs and restrictions continue to bind us.

"The focus for the coming year will be on tenant consolidation and lease renewals. If some brands have difficulty staying afloat, we will speak with them about their intended survival strategy. Otherwise, we may have to replace the brands with other well-known brands," he said.

Anthony said that 2023 is about continuing the upward trend in terms of revenue and earnings.

"We hope to maintain the momentum year after year," he said.

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