Overview

Our firm’s real estate practice is premised on ensuring that our clients benefit commercially from real estate opportunities and we are known for our ability to handle large and complex transactions. We regularly advise land owners, developers, joint venture partners, housing developers, real estate investment trusts, receivers, liquidators and other stakeholders as to the law in relation to real estate practices and have advised and negotiated on numerous types of specialist real estate activity.

Our Practice Approach

We adopt a holistic 360 degree practice approach and constantly strive to cover the entire breadth of legal advice in the real property space. In doing so we have acted as advisors to both domestic and foreign parties in respect of substantial developments of land and industry and are acquainted with the principles and procedures applicable to a variety of scenarios, including land acquisition and its attendant requirements, land reclamation, the issue and alienation of land titles, the survey, subdivision and realienation of land by state authorities, conditions and restrictions of interest on land titles and joint development of lands with state or local authorities.

Our Market Recognition:

Our real estate practice team, ranked by Asialaw Profiles 2022, has a long and storied history.

Our Deal Experience:

Our team had originally advised on the landmark acquisition by Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng (of major plantation-based corporation IOI Group) in 1989 of 27,880 hectares from Dunlop Estates, comprising 154 plots of land on which 13 estates, 2 mills, 2 factories and a research station were situated. More recently, our team has advised and negotiated on a number of specialist real estate transactions including:

• the joint development of over 110 acres of land in Melaka with a gross development value of about RM480,000,000, which development included the construction and sale of residential units, retail units, hotels, service apartments, office towers, commercial shops and offices;
• the sale and transfer of iconic national landmark structures in central Kuala Lumpur between the holding company and its group real estate investment trust;
• the sale and purchase of a five-star international hotel and hotel business in the centre of Kuala Lumpur;
• the approval and establishment of Malaysia’s first Shariah compliant privately owned Real Estate Investment Trust;
• complex land issues in the listings of significant listed property development companies and palm-oil plantation companies, involving some 350,000 hectares of land held under more than 1,200 titles;
• the development of two (2) tower blocks in the centre of Kuala Lumpur comprising one (1) block of high end corporate offices and one (1) block of internationally branded serviced residences;
• the acquisition by Tower Real Estate Investment Trust of Menara Guoco at Damansara City, a mixed development comprising a hotel, residence, office towers, shopping malls and car park to the value of RM242 million; and
• the disposal by Permodalan Nasional Berhad of industrial land in Selangor to the local subsidiary of a Hong Kong company to the value of approximately RM110 million.