KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 ― Sime Darby Property Bhd is targeting RM2.3 billion in sales for financial year 2020 (FY20), the same target it set last year, despite expectations of a soft and challenging market.

Acting group chief executive officer Datuk Wan Hashimi AlBakri Wan Ahmad Amin Jaffri said the group expects the soft and challenging property market to continue this year amid various issues affecting sentiment such as the Covid-19 outbreak and the ongoing local political uncertainty.

"The group exceeded its target last year to post RM3.18 billion in sales. Although we see that there are products that are still in demand, we are still yet to see whether the consumers are willing to commit.

"However, we will rise to the challenge to deliver the set target,” he told reporters at the FY19 result briefing here today.

The recent political upheaval is definitely going to set the market back, he said, noting the stock market lost RM40 billion in one day, a situation that will take some time to recover from.

But he said he believes Malaysia is a resilient country with good fundamentals and would be able to overcome the situation.

On strategy, he said the group intends to remain consistent in its top line revenue by strategising on the right products to put on the market at the right price and the right time.

"For the bottom line we would also focus on our cost management to better manage and optimise it.

"We also would ramp up on our recurring income particularly in our just started journey of industrial development, with two ongoing projects in Bukit Raja and more in the pipeline,” he said.

He said the group expects to launch up to 20 new projects in the second half of this year assuming the market is stable, with a gross development value of about RM2.7 billion.

The projects would focus on affordable housing, he said.

The group, Wan Hashimi said, has about 8094 hectares of landbank currently worth about RM85.4 billion, with about 5420 hectares with ongoing development while about another 2665 hectares are still undeveloped.

For now, he said, the group still has sufficient land but will not turn down a good opportunity to expand, particularly for high-yielding land, although it is looking more at a joint venture.

Meanwhile, on the Battersea Power Station project, he said phases one to three are progressing well with sales having shot up after the Brexit certainty, while phases four to seven will be kept for future development. ― Bernama