Ascott Secures Its First Serviced Residence In Iskandar Malaysia

CapitaLand’s wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has won a contract to manage its first serviced residence in Iskandar, the southern gateway of Malaysia

CapitaLand’s wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has won a contract to manage its first serviced residence in Iskandar, the southern gateway of Malaysia. The new 204-unit Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar is scheduled to open in the Nusajaya flagship economic zone in 2013. The contract is awarded by Nusajaya Consolidated Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between established Malaysian developers United Malayan Land Bhd and UEM Land Berhad.

Mr Lim Ming Yan, Ascott’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Malaysia has strong growth potential for Ascott due to its resilient economy and attractiveness as a destination for foreign direct investments. The government has invested significant resources to develop the Iskandar region to spur the growth of Malaysia’s economy. Besides attracting investments of over RM70 billion from foreign and domestic companies, the large-scale tourism projects in Iskandar also bring tremendous opportunities for serviced residences. As the first international serviced residence provider in Nusajaya, Ascott is well positioned to tap on the burgeoning demand for quality accommodation from expatriates and travellers.”

Mr Alfred Ong, Ascott’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia and Australia, said: “Ascott expanded into Cyberjaya and Petaling Jaya earlier this year and we are pleased to add another city to our Malaysian network. Our entry into Iskandar further strengthens Ascott’s leadership position as the largest international serviced residence owner and operator in Malaysia. We currently operate five properties with close to 700 apartment units. With this new property in Iskandar, we now have a strong growth pipeline of more than 900 units which are scheduled to open in Malaysia over the next five years. In total, this brings our Malaysian portfolio to over 1,600 units. We will continue to look for opportunities to expand our footprint in Malaysia.”

Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar is strategically located within Nusajaya, home to developments such as EduCity which houses several world-class university campuses, Medini which encompasses business and leisure districts, the Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters and Afiat Healthpark. The serviced residence is within walking distance to Kota Iskandar, the Johor State’s new administrative centre. It is a 20-minute drive from the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link and 25 minutes away from Johor's Senai International Airport. It is also easily accessible via the soon to be opened coastal highway which links Nusajaya to the main Johor city centre and the Johor-Singapore Causeway. Travellers can enjoy excellent connectivity to other parts of the Iskandar region via the water transport terminal, bus terminal and light rail transit station situated in the property’s vicinity.

As part of the luxurious waterfront development of Puteri Harbour, Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar is near quayside lifestyle stores, fine dining restaurants, alfresco cafés and an indoor theme park featuring popular children’s characters such as Hello Kitty, Thomas and Friends, Barney and Bob the Builder. Furthermore, it is just 10 minutes away from the first Legoland theme park in Asia which is expected to open in 2012.

Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar offers spacious apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units that come fully furnished with modern amenities. With facilities such as a gymnasium, swimming pool, restaurant and residents’ lounge available in the property, Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar provides the ideal home away from home for travellers and their families to live, work and play.

Besides Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar, Ascott plans to open Citadines Uplands Kuching in 2012, Ascott Sentral Kuala Lumpur in 2013, Citadines D'Pulze Cyberjaya in 2014 and Somerset Damansara Uptown Petaling Jaya in 2016. Ascott currently operates Ascott Kuala Lumpur, Somerset Ampang Kuala Lumpur, Somerset Seri Bukit Ceylon Kuala Lumpur and two properties for corporate lease in Malaysia.

The management contract for Somerset Puteri Harbour Iskandar is not expected to have any material impact on the net tangible assets or earnings per share of the CapitaLand Group for the financial year ending 31 December 2011.