Azmir: Sime Darby Property delivered five property projects in H1 2022 despite the challenge of labour shortage

By Sharen Kaur - Published in NST Property on August 26, 2022 

Sime Darby Property Bhd has delivered five property projects so far this year and is optimistic that it would complete seven more before the year is through, its group managing director Datuk Azmir Merican said.

sharen@nst.com.my

Sime Darby Property Bhd delivered five real estate projects in the first half of this year (H1 2022), despite the fact that a labour shortage caused delays on roughly 30 per cent of the developments.

According to the company's group managing director Datuk Azmir Merican, there is still a 50 per cent labour deficit in the present, down from 60 per cent in the first half of 2022.

Azmir anticipates that the labour shortage issue will be overcome within the next two months and that it would hire more workers to accelerate its progress by the end of the fourth quarter of this year (4Q22).

He was also confident that Sime Darby Property would be able to complete seven more projects by the end of the year.

"We have managed to bring down delayed projects due to labour shortage to around five to 10 per cent now from 20 to 30 per cent. So, we will be able to hand over the rest of the projects by the end of this year.

"This is something we would work closely with our subcontractors as we cannot do it alone. Hence, we are finding ways and pushing very hard to get workers in as this is our top priority," he said in a virtual media briefing on the company's H1 2022 financial results ended June 30, 2022 today.

"We need to understand that as the economy recovers post-Covid-19, this is a unique situation where the supply chain is being activated, but it is not going in the direction we intended. This was something that was not unexpected," he said.

According to Azmir, the outlook for the real estate market is generally positive since purchasers prefer to work with recognised developers that can produce high-quality work on schedule.

Meanwhile, the company plans to achieve the remaining RM1.3 billion in gross development value (GDV) from the RM2.8 billion targeted for 2022.

Azmir said that RM1.5 billion worth of properties has been launched in the first quarter of 2022, with 94 per cent of residential properties, excluding statutory products, already sold as of August 7.

The company plans to begin new projects both here and in the United Kingdom, where it is currently developing Battersea Power Station.