Leisure Farm and UEM, in Iskandar, are completely different animals with a different vision, mission, and strategy.
Leisure Farm (Mulpha) is positioned as high end real estate. Their mission is to maximise the value of their owned land bank, without much control into what happens around it. In a region that has become a favourite of investors, and prices are going up, it is in their interest to release limited real estate into market and keep waiting until prices rise further to sell off the limited land bank they own. They will continue to free ride on all of the catalytic developments created by UEM.
UEM, on the other hand, are the master developers of Nusajaya. They are perhaps the largest land owners. It is in their interest to get the area populated so that Iskandar becomes successful. They offer real estate at all price ranges (Nusa Bayou to East Ledang). Be it entry level, like Nusa Bayou or high end, like East Ledang, they are trying to keep their prices reasonable and release as many units they can sustain so that more people can buy and start living, in the process create critical mass for businesses to come in. So far, I must say they have done a darn good job. I have been going to Nusajaya quite frequently since early 2011 and I can see that the place is shaping up quite nicely. Shops, Restaurants, Hotels, Mall, Schools, Colleges, internationally diverse communities, businesses, have all come up within these 3 years and that's incredible.
So, in a nutshell, here is what I can conclude about an organization like UEM:
- there focus is more on the success of Iskandar and creating a lively community, not just make money on real estate
- being a government linked organization, they cannot be seen as a company that is jacking up real estate prices and contributing to a bubble, so they cannot be price leaders. Their price increases have to be slow and sustainable and in tandem with material costs, etc, that may be justified
- right now, they are making tons of money from land sales to other developers so they can very well afford to keep their real estate prices reasonable and let it sell itself
Sharp observation, bro IR.