by FARA AISYAH

THE nationwide Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) has driven the interest for MRCB Land Sdn Bhd’s Alstonia Hilltop Homes in Bukit Rahman Putra, resulting in 30% take-up rate since it was launched in May.

MRCB Land CEO Raymond Cheah (picture) said the company has started to see the effect of HOC only recently as it finalised the registration under the government’s scheme in May 2019.

“We can see the increase of interest since HOC. For the Alstonia project, we see about a fivefold increase in terms of bookings and sales. That is why we are confident of achieving the RM100 million sales target for Alstonia by year-end.

“For some other projects, the increase of interests is about 20 times — quite dramatic I would say,” he said at a media briefing in Shah Alam last week.

He added that the company has achieved a sales value of RM70 million for Alstonia.

Cheah also said Alstonia’s buyers consist of the upgraders, mainly nearby residents who want to move into bigger units as the houses in Bukit Rahman Putra are mostly terrace houses.

He said MRCB Land is planning to introduce the commercial developments for the remaining 1.62ha plot of land in the township by the middle of next year.

“The third phase of our development in Bukit Rahman Putra will be for commercial project. We are looking at extending the commercial hub that is already established in the area,” Cheah added.

Alstonia has a total gross development value (GDV) of approximately RM250 million and the project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

MRCB Land has total cumulative unbilled sales of RM1.76 billion, approximately 90% of which are residential and 10% commercial projects. With interests in 114.12ha of urban land, the group has a sustainable supply of future projects with a total GDV of RM31 billion.

Meanwhile, Yayasan MRCB has announced the collected amount of RM50,000 from Malaysia’s largest coin bank donation drive initiated on July 6, 2019.

The coin bank donation drive will be used to help underprivileged children and unfortunate families from the low-income group.

“Yayasan MRCB is currently organising a fundraising activity via a charity concert featuring Yannick Bovy, a popular Universal Music’s recording artiste, on Oct 5, 2019, at Istana Budaya,” Yayasan MRCB trustee Datuk Shamrat Sen Gupta said.

“The net proceeds from the concert will be channelled to implement activities for the needy and the urban poor with limited resources,” he added.