Glomac cuts sales target by half

From The Star Online:

Glomac Bhd is cutting its property sales target by half for fiscal 2010 as the global economic downturn hit buyers’ confidence, said a top executive on Tuesday.

The property developer aimed to sell houses, shoplots and offices worth about RM400mil in the year to April 2010, down from its previous target of RM800mil, said managing director Datuk Fateh Iskandar Mohamed Mansor.

“At this moment in time, looking at the weak take-up rate of our properties, I have to be conservative,” he told Reuters in an interview.

The company was in “advanced talks” to sell en bloc a 25-storey corporate tower at Glomac Damansara, a mixed commercial and residential development, said Fateh.

The building had a market value of about RM170mil, he said.

“We hope to complete the sale by the end of the year. If that happens, these are bonuses,” said Fateh.

I'm not holding my breath for a recovery in property any time soon. We'll see if the unemployment rate picks up end of this month in step with the property market. Unemployment has been much lower compared to the rest of the world, but that will start to change. Nothing has quite an affect on banking and property as high unemployment rate does.