$1b Sales From Mid-East Projects: CapitaLand

Source : The Business Times, October 17, 2008

CAPITALAND has made about $1 billion worth of sales in two projects in the Middle East.

In a statement yesterday, the company said that it had sold 849 units out of a total of 1,559 units in the two developments since June.

The developments are the 691-unit Raffles City Bahrain and the 868-unit Rihan Heights in Abu Dhabi.

Raffles City Bahrain is owned and developed by the Syariah-compliant Raffles City Bahrain Fund, which is managed by CapitaLand, while Rihan Heights is the first phase of CapitaLand's 49 per cent-owned associate company Capitala's US$5-6 billion flagship integrated development Arzanah.

Liew Mun Leong, president and CEO of CapitaLand Group, said: 'Besides our core markets of Singapore, China and Australia, CapitaLand is now seeing contributions from its fourth engine of growth, namely the new markets of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, as well as Asian countries like Vietnam, Thailand and India.'

CapitaLand said that it had launched 750 residential units of its 80 per cent-owned The Vista, Vietnam and 590 residential units of its 49 per cent-owned The Orchard Residency, India.

While The Vista units have been fully booked, 309 units at The Orchard Residency have been sold. In Thailand, TCC Capital Land, CapitaLand's 40 per cent-owned joint venture with TCC Land, has sold or booked over 2,400 residential units to date.

Raffles City Bahrain, in the country's capital city of Manama, will be an integrated project comprising residential, retail and serviced residence components.

The average sale price of the residential units achieved was about $615.67 psf. CapitaLand said that this was higher than the average price of $474.92 psf for similar residential apartments in Bahrain.

Rihan Heights is part of the Arzanah integrated development which is located on a prime 1.4 million square metre waterfront site surrounding Zayed Stadium on Abu Dhabi main island.

The average sale price achieved ranged from about $902.74 psf to $976.78 psf, depending on the size, level and orientation of the unit.