S P Setia has long-term plans for Australia
Melbourne: Malaysia’s leading developer S P Setia Group (Setia) sees its venture in Australia as a start of a long-term investment plan. The developer officially launched its first project in Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD) today called Fulton LN.
Located between Franklin Street and A’Beckett Street the 4,300 sqm site was purchased in 2010. Since then, Setia has moved very quickly to establish Fulton Ln as a premium address in the CBD.
Designed by the award-winning team of Fender Katsalidis headed up by award winning Architect and current President of the Architects Institute of Australia (AIA) Karl Fender, Fulton LN comprises two towers made up of 700 apartments and is expected to complete in 2014.
Just moments away from Queen Victoria Market and close to RMIT, La Trobe University and Melbourne University, Fulton LN presents an attractive location.
Setia’s President and Chief Executive Officer LiewKee Sin said the Group came to Australia to invest as much as to learn.
The Group has a close working relationship with the Lend Lease Group of Australia through its Setia City Mall joint venture project in Malaysia.
Liew said this partnership has exposed and attracted Setia to the very professional and highly transparent Australian working and business culture.
Melbourne is Setia’s third overseas venture after Vietnam and Singapore. Liew said it was a logical choice as there are close to 30,000 Malaysian-born individuals living in Melbourne.
“This presents a significant opportunity to reach out to this market segment, a sizeble subset of whom would be familiar with and appreciative of our strong development track record and branding in Malaysia.
Setia is the only developer in Malaysia that has three prestigious FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Awards to its name. FIABCI is the French acronym for the International Real Estate Federation and the Prix d’Excellence is akin to the Property Oscars.
Touching on the learning aspect that Melbourne has to offer, Liew said there was no better city that exemplified the Group’s development philosophy based on the four pillars of Live, Learn, Work and Play.
Melbourne was recently ranked number one in the Economists Group’s Intelligence Unit’s annual worlds most livable cities survey.
It also boasts a selection of highly esteemed academic institutions and Australia is one of the fastest growing advanced economies in the world with Melbourne being the heart of the financial, banking and resource industries.
To top it off, Melbourne’s unique laneway culture is host to a variety of world-class restaurants, bars, shops and cafes. “These impart a very special living sensibility to the city and Fulton LN hopes to reignite this culture in the northern part of Melbourne’s CBD.
Liew added that the Group’s experience with Fulton LN has been enriching and Setia excited to continue investing in Melbourne. Recently, the Group made a commitment to a second project when it purchased a significant site in the city’s premier residential boulevard, St Kilda Road. Setia paid AUD25.5 million for the 0.9 ha site.
Today’s launch saw some 200 guests and prominent Malaysian government officials including the Malaysian Minister of Housing and Local Government ChorChee Heung and Consul General of Malaysia Dr Mohammad Rameez.