Kudat going Luxury & Super High-end

Kudat is about 270KM from Kota Kinabalu. It’ located at the end of the Borneo recently better known as “Tips Of Borneo”. For the past 5 years Kudat has grown from unknown place to one of the major tourism attraction places with the effort of our former Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat. Tan Sri has push Kudat to the world and was known to all Malaysian after the controversial issues over constructions of world tallest “Mazu” which will be build within the next 12 months. Kudat going high end is what I foresee within the next few years but of course with the help of government.

One of the major action government should take is to rezoning all Kudat land into tourism belt and turn Kudat into major My Malaysia 2^nd Home (MM2H) heaven. Then government should work together with private to improve the infrastructure especially road, water and electricity. Governments help will turn Kudat into one of the world class tourism attractions place at par with our neighborhood like Bali, Indonesia, and Pattaya, Thailand. Look at Singapore government, knowing their economy is at the peak of the world and no other way to go up further, out of sudden they approved casino license which pushing their property prices and economy into all time high. Now government only need to monitor their growth while watching steady growth of its republic as private and public has join in stabilizing their economy. 80/20 rules always works, government only needs to do 20% of the jobs and leave the rest of 80% for private and public to work on. There will be more to gain for government rather than losing.

Changing Kudat face will enhance employment opportunity especially when foreigner started their private developments for high-end villas. Currently there is one private development known as Kudat Riviera (http://www.kudatriviera.com) done by foreigner received overwhelming respond from “Rich & Famous” market all over the world. He is selling in international market with not less than USD 1M per unit @ RM3.5M. This figure is too good to be true to Malaysian but this is the fact. All this will be the chain effect not only to the government but also to local people. The chain effect will touch people like gardeners, security services, constructions workers, lawyers and almost everyone in the tourism industry.

Kudat Riviera is employing not less than 50 peoples to make sure the whole project serve its purposes. Their room rate per night started from RM2200 excluding government tax and services tax. From here we know, government is gaining more than losing especially from stamp duty (around RM25K for every one million house transacted), tax from the services they provide, legal fees tax, employment opportunity for the local and local stimulated activity.

But why Kudat? Why not other places like Kota Belud, Keningau, Sandakan and Lahad Datu? Simply because, Kudat is isolated at the end of Borneo with less development and major activities by government and private. Kudat has been famous for its white sand beach, crystal clear blue water and surrounded by virgin jungles. All this is what foreigners want from us. We should keep it and make some profit out of it. Just like what government profited from our mount Kinabalu. They have been selling the “view” of Mount Kinabalu for few decades.

Currently world are promoting ‘Go Green” concept and Malaysia government is also joining in to make it a success. Kudat is fantastic place for “Go Green” Village which will enhances further in the effort of promoting MM2H to the world. Currently Kudat Riviera has been receiving numerous awards which Sabahan should be proud of, to name few:

-        Nominataed for World’s Leading Green Resort Aug 2009 World Travel Awards
- Nominated for Asia’s Leading Green Hotel May 2008 Cityscape Asia Real Estate Awards
- Best Developer : Corporate Social Responsibility May 2008 Cityscape Asia Real Estate Awards
- Best Developer : Waterfront Development (Future) Sept 2007 International Property Awards
- Best Architecture (Multiple Units) Malaysia Sept 2007 International Property Awards
- Best Development Malaysia Oct 2006 Asia Tropical Homes Award
- Top Of The Region Award for Oct – Dec 2006

All this will add values to the property as a whole. Imaging your parent land which is planted with coconuts now will be worth millions. When Asian ignores the beauty of the white sand beach, green environment and natural beauty, foreigner is taking advantages over us. By the time we wake up, we might need to buy from them. Oh..no..this is what happening; Kudat Riviera is developed by UK guy. I respect his effort and thank him for bringing Kudat into world map. And lately I heard rumors saying Ong Beng Seng owner of Hotel Properties Ltd, one of the richest men from Singapore shows interest on our abandoned Kudat land. He is famous for his high-end and luxury resort located all over the world and long time partner of Hard Rock Café. He is also the man behind who bring F1 into the island.

Not surprising if he help us in bringing Kudat into higher level in the near future. Investment cost over his return will be fabulous and unbelievable. So why don’t we wake up today and see a bit further into our own future. Determine our own future and make it happen. Why let other people determine our destiny? We are also as smart as they are right? Create  some bedtime legend story for our grandchildren for what we do today will benefit them forever.  Happy Investing.

You cannot Grow Land.. CK Wong & KH Wong

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1. High Income Economy