Smartphone Ascend P1 unveiled by Huawei Technologies

KUALA LUMPUR: With smartphones becoming an indispensable tool for staying connected on the social media networks, China-based Huawei Technologies has launched an affordable yet feature-rich model.

Many queued up as early as 6.30am to get their hands on the Ascend P1 at the introductory price of RM999 during its launch in KL Hilton yesterday.

Ong Boon Lin, 35, who was first in line, said he bought the phone for his wife as the larger screen would make it better for “reading news and books”.

“The Ascend P1 is a fast smartphone with a camera for capturing and sharing contents while on the move,” said Huawei country director for consumer business group Wong Wey Hwa.

A model with the Ascend P1 smartphone at the launch.

The phone has a large 4.3-inch screen, making it easy to browse the web, view images and watch high-definition videos. It also comes with 4GB of storage to store content, applications and games.

“Huawei has been working behind the scenes for many years by supplying infrastructure for network service providers,” said Wong. “We are now trying to grow our brand using online and social media with the Ascend P1.”

The smartphone, which is available currently in the Klang Valley, is expected to hit shelves nationwide in the coming weeks. The introductory price is valid until Malaysia Day.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported Huawei country director for consumer business group Wong Wey Hwa as saying that the company was aiming for double-digit sales growth in the Malaysian market.

“Last year, we did US$40mil sales in Malaysia for all our products,” he said, adding that the smartphone was expected to contribute 20% to 30% of the targeted double-digit sales growth.

Wong also announced the expansion of Huawei's device business under a new distribution partnership with ECS ICT Bhd via its wholly-owned subsidiary, ECS Astar Sdn Bhd, which would open up access to over 3,000 resellers nationwide.

“Through our formal partnership with ECS in Malaysia, we are able to expand our product reach and offer more accessibility of our devices to everyone looking for value-added mobile connectivity,” he said.

Wong said Ascend P1 would be available at participating ECS retailers in the Klang Valley and in other places in the next few weeks.

For a review of the Ascend P1, check out TechCentral.my.

By CHONG JINN XIUNG starbiz@thestar.com.my  

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Singapore moves to discourage shoebox apartments

Singapore will cap the number of homes that can be developed in suburban projects as it seeks to curb the increasing trend of so-called shoebox apartments.

The government plans to limit the number of homes for apartment projects outside the city’s central area to “discourage” shoebox units, the Urban Redevelopment Authoritysaid in a statement posted on its website today. The new rules will be implemented from Nov. 4.

The island state’s population growth, scarce land and surging property values have prompted developers to shrink housing space.

Residential prices surged to a record at the end of 2011 in a city that’s about half the size of Los Angeles, and the government said in May it’s concerned that shoebox apartments are mushrooming as private home sales surged to a three-year high with record purchases of units that are smaller than 50 square meters (538 square feet).

“The new guidelines will discourage new developments consisting predominantly of ‘shoebox’ units outside the central area, but at the same time give flexibility to developers to offer a range of homes of different sizes to cater to the needs of various demographic groups and lifestyles,” according to the statement.

Shoebox units will increase more than four-fold to about 11,000 units by the end of 2015 from 2,400 at the end of last year, the authority said.

‘Almost Inhuman’

Singapore should curb the trend of shoebox apartments because they are “almost inhuman,” said Liew Mun Leong, chief executive officer of CapitaLand Ltd. (CAPL), Southeast Asia’s biggest developer. The government should intervene because these projects are “wasting” the country’s scarce land resource, he said in the interview in May.

The smaller apartments helped boost sales, comprising 2,766 units or 42 percent of the sales in the first quarter, Li Hiaw Ho, executive director at CBRE Research, said in an e-mailed statement in July.

Home sales have climbed to 12,254 units this year through June 30, according to data from the authority. Suburban projects will be the “driving force” for developers in the second half of 2012, PropNex said.

The government’s guidelines are a “welcome move” amid concerns of smaller homes dominating the suburbs, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

Consumer Trends

“The policy itself is well thought through,” Jones Lang, a Chicago-based property brokerage, said in an e-mailed statement. “Central area, where land prices are high, is excluded thereby allowing market forces to continue to dictate the relevant housing form especially through the measures of financial affordability and equally that of consumers’ preferences and trends.”

The government doesn’t want shoebox units to form a “disproportionately large portion” of the housing supply in Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said today. Some new housing developments are made up mostly of these smaller units, sometimes as much as 80 percent of a project, it said.

A large concentration of such developments could add stress to the local road infrastructure with more units that the government had planned for, according to the statement.

By Pooja Thakur - Bloomberg

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Malaysian property market remains resilient: housing robust but commerical glutted

Developers optimistic of H2 but not sure about 2013

PETALING JAYA: The Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association Malaysia (Rehda) expects the housing and property market to plateau in the second half of 2012, but will remain resilient.

According to a survey Rehda conducted, property developers are optimistic of the second half and more respondents plan to launch projects.

The survey is based on a sample size of 180 companies, out of the 1,003 Rehda members.
Property developers are less optimistic of the first half of 2013 due to certain factors, including the outcomes of the 13th general elections and Budget 2013. The current global economic situation also contributes some uncertainty.

The results of the survey show that the property market in the first half of this year is still driven by the domestic market, despite beliefs that foreigners are buying more local properties. Last year, only 2% of total properties transacted were from foreigners.

Rehda president Datuk Seri Michael Yam said the Government should review building less low-cost homes. In 2011, 1.04 million units out if the total 4.51 million total residential stock were low-cost homes.

 

“As Malaysia moves towards striving to reach developed nation status by 2020, the Government should review if there is a need for so many low-cost homes,” Yam said.

Rehda national treasurer N.K. Tong said: “Perhaps the Government should consider implementing a limitation to low-cost homes like what Singapore has done with the HDB (Housing and Development Board) flats.”

HDB flat owners-to-be are not allowed to own any other properties in Singapore, or in any other part of the world. Tong said if such a plan was implemented in Malaysia, there would be less abuse of these properties, unfairness caused to developers and to a larger extent the people.

“I'm more concerned with the supply factor. It is moving downwards due to the shortage of prime land and rising building costs. Come 2015, if the Government is serious about implementing the build-and-sell plan, the supply (of houses) will reduce by about 80%,” Rehda past president Datuk Ng Seing Liong said.

His main concern if the plan was implemented was that property prices would continue to trend upwards due to the supply and demand equilibrium.

“In terms of the property sector, we must look at a long-term scenario,” he said in regards to future plan implementations.

Rehda public relations, communications and publication committee member Che King Tow said the Government usually owned the best-located properties.

He said it would benefit the public if the Government could consider releasing its land in high-density areas such as Jalan Duta and Selangor Golf Course in the upcoming budget.

“Those are suitable prime land for mass housing. They can cut down on ownership of cars, and use public transport instead,” he said.

Yam also urged the Government to establish an automatic-release mechanism to enable the release of unsold bumiputera units. Although Rehda has not complained about allocating a portion for bumiputera buyers, the unsold properties are affecting the developers.

“More projects are having unreleased unsold bumiputera lots which impact the developer's cash flow. An auto-release mechanism should be put in place to automatically release the unsold properties after a stipulated time to prevent this,” he said.

By WONG WEI-SHEN weishen.wong@thestar.com.my

Housing market robust but commercial property glutted

Malaysia's residential property sector will continue its upward momentum thanks to ample supply and demand as well as a change in the demographic structure, according to figures from the National Property Information Centre (Napic).

Last year, 269,789 residential deals valued at RM61.83 billion were recorded, the largest in the past five years.

Napic's statistics also showed that demand for units priced below RM150,000 was strong, accounting for 145,785 deals, or 54 percent of all the residential transactions for 2011. Moreover, this is an increase of 12.6 percent compared to the previous year's 129,441 transactions.

"On a similar upward trend, the demand for high-end units priced above RM500,000 increased gradually to 21,905 transactions from the 16,782 transactions recorded in 2010," said the Napic report, adding that the Malaysian All House Price Index soared to 154.6 points from 140.7 points in 2010.

"This was (also) attributed to the increase in affordability level and supported by the ease in borrowing and attractive loan packages offered by the financial institutions," commented Datuk Ng Seng Liong, Past President of Real Estate and Housing Developer's Association of Malaysia (REHDA).

However, there are concerns that Klang Valley's commercial property sector is facing a supply glut, said Dr Ernest Cheong, Principle of Ernest Cheong PTL Sdn Bhd. He believed that the problem can be solved by creating additional demand or stopping construction of commercial property.

La-Brooy, Chief Executive Officer at Axis REIT Managers Bhd, concurs. He explained that rental and occupancy rates will be pressured later this year because as much as five million sq ft of office space are scheduled for completion for the remainder of 2012.

For the latest property news, trends, resources and expert opinions, visit our Property News section. Home buyers, sellers or property renters looking for Malaysian Properties, may like to visit http://www.propertyguru.com.my today.

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