Mah Sing’s Icon City gets Cyber-centre status
Mah Sing Group’s Icon City development in Petaling Jaya has obtained Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia Cyber-centre status. Cyber-centres function to create an ecosystem that fosters a competitive environment to attract, nurture and retain information technology (IT)-enabled industries. The Cyber-centre status allows companies within Icon City to be entitled to a set of incentives, rights and privileges from the government. These include competitive financial incentives, namely the pioneer status which is a 100% tax exemption for up to 10 years or an investment tax allowance for up to five years and duty-free importation of multimedia equipment. Icon City has an estimated GDV of RM3.2 billion and is located at the intersection of Federal Highway and LDP. (The Star Online)

Grand start for Eco World IPO with Guocoland, EPF and PNB
The upcoming Eco World International listing, slated to be the biggest in Malaysia this year, has gotten off to a grand start. The property developer has secured two of the country’s biggest institutional funds – the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) – as its cornerstone investors. The funds would be taking up 30% of the IPO shares that have been allocated to the institutional investors. It has also signed a share subscription agreement with Guocoland Ltd, which will take up a 27% stake in EWI’s enlarged issued and paid-up capital. GuocoLand will act as co-anchor in the IPO and strategic investor. Proceeds from EWI’s IPO will be used to fund the development of its projects in the United Kingdom and Australia. (The Star Online)

Nielsen: Malaysia’s consumer confidence seen to be weak
Consumer spending in Malaysia is expected to remain flat at best for the next six months, according to the forecast by market research firm Nielsen. The Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index dipped by five points to 84 percentage points (pp) in Q4 last year compared to the previous quarter. Malaysia ranked 37th most confident country in the quarter, down seven spots from the third quarter of 2016. The economy (55%), increasing food prices (25%) and political stability (21%) were listed as Malaysian consumers’ top key concerns in Q4 2016. 85% believed the nation was in a recessionary state and 52% perceived their personal finances to be either not so good or bad in the next 12 months. (The Star Online)

MRCB bags two prizes at Middle East Business Leadership Awards 2016
MRCB has won the “Best Urban Property Developer Award” and “Best Transit Oriented Development Award” at the 7th Middle East Business Leadership Awards (MEBLA) which was held in London recently. The awards were in recognition of MRCB’s success in connecting various transportation modes in one location that turned its Kuala Lumpur Sentral Central Business District (KL Sentral) as the country’s largest transportation hub. MRCB plans to use its success as a template for future TODs at other locations. Other similar projects in the pipeline included PJ Sentral, Cyberjaya City Centre, the northern transport hub of Penang Sentral and Kwasa Sentral in Sungai Buloh. (The Star Online)

Artist's impression of PJ Sentral Garden City (Source: MRCB)

Artist’s impression of PJ Sentral Garden City (Source: MRCB)

Menara Prudential changes hands
Property investment and holding company KL33 Properties Sdn Bhd has bought the Menara Prudential office building in Kuala Lumpur’s commercial business district from OCBC Properties (M) Sdn Bhd for RM125 million. JLL Malaysia country head Y.Y. Lau said given the improved public transport infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur, JLL is seeing “a spike in demand for projects with good connectivity.” Menara Prudential is located on Jalan Sultan Ismail within the Kuala Lumpur Golden Triangle. (The Star Online)

DBKL plans to redevelop Jalan Kelang Lama wet market
The 40-year-old Jalan Kelang Lama wet market will be redeveloped into a mixed development with the market remaining at the site. Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz confirmed this, saying that DBKL is currently in the research and planning stage. It will be a housing development with the market remaining intact. The plan to redevelop the market was welcomed, but traders were concerned about issues such as sufficient parking spots, trading lots, and relocation during the redevelopment period. (Star Metro)

A smoke detector fixed to the ceiling

A smoke detector fixed to the ceiling

New houses may come with smoke detectors
Two cases of deadly fires in the Klang Valley have forced the authorities to consider making it compulsory for homes to have smoke detectors. However, any such ruling would only be imposed on new housing development projects. The government had ordered a study to be conducted on having smoke detectors in all new homes following the deadly fires reported earlier this month. Early detection is the most important thing during a fire, therefore the authorities are looking at making it mandatory for developers to install smoke detectors in all houses in the future. This will be an additional measure to the mandatory fire extinguisher requirement in all households which was implemented three years ago. (Free Malaysia Today)