2018 IKEA Batu Kawan, RM8 Billion Development, 10 years to complete

Today, there are many Facebook sharing about IKEA Batu Kawan. The year is 2018. Many months ago, the announcement of IKEA got everyone excited for Batu Kawan. At that time, reports said that IKEA will open in 2020 as construction expected to start in 2015 and takes five years. Since 2018 is now officially mentioned, perhaps there is a possibility of it happening. Anyway, the middle point of 2018 and 2020 is 2019. We are already approaching end of 2014. Thus, IKEA is just 4 years away. So, would this piece of news be the tipping point for Batu Kawan? As it is, huge developers are already buying up lands in Batu Kawan. The largest land owner should be PDC. I hope PDC would continue to play an active role and not just selling lands for money.
As per report, Aspen Vision Land, IKEA franchisee Ikano Pte Ltd and the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) has signed an agreement for a RM8 billion integrated development in Batu Kawan that will be built around IKEA. In other words, the anchor tenant is IKEA and rightly so. If you have been to IKEA Damansara, it is full of people all the time, especially during lunch and dinner time. Somehow, Malaysians love the Swedish meatballs with jam!. Within the same project would be a mixed development of residences, offices, medical facilities, a 20-acre park, an international school, standalone retail outlets and an integrated central transportation hub for Seberang Perai.
Wait. IKEA said with this signing, it will start conducting impact studies and market surveys before it starts building. In his own words, Ikano Managing Director Christian Rojkjaer said that “We are opening up a full-sized IKEA store here so we will need an elaborate study to be completed first before works can begin. The first phase is IKEA and it will complete by 2018. The second phase will be the rest and it is estimated to take 10 years to be fully completed. Aspen and Ikano jointly bought 245 acres of land from PDC for RM483.95 million for the project.
I think the survey should be very positive. After all, within Batu Kawan itself, Penang will be building 11,800 units of public and affordable housing. Considering 4 to a unit, we are talking about a population of close to 50,000 just for these 11,800 units. I can safely assure you that between Batu Kawan or Damansara, Ipoh folks may be driving to Penang instead and after shopping can still drop by for the usual Penang food such as char koay trow, hokkien mee and cendol. Oh yeah, should you jump in and buy now? Well, if you are buying and staying there, by all means buy now. If you intend to buy a secondary property and wait, I think it will be some waiting. As for primary properties, I have yet to see any developments in Batu Kawan which my friends would WhatsApp me and said, ‘hey this is very exciting’. Of course, with this news about IKEA, I think the primary launches may be coming soon.
written on 4 Sept 2014
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