JOHOR Land Bhd (JLand) is projecting RM3.58bil in sales from its new township project, Bandar Dato’ Onn, which will be launched by year-end.

Chairman Mohd Talhar Abdul Rahman said the township, named in honour of the founding father of Umno, was expected to bring in RM920mil in gross profit.

The project is sited on a 1,474-acre freehold land in Mukim Tebrau.

''The project will keep the company busy for the next 10 to 15 years,'' he told a press conference after the company's AGM yesterday.

He said the company was banking on the project's strategic location and its close proximity (about 16km) to the city centre to attract buyers.

Talhar said on completion, the township would have some 17,800 residential and commercial properties with 80,000 residents.

''We are targeting existing house owners who want to upgrade to bigger houses and those with surplus cash for the high-end homes,'' he said.

Talhar said it would expand in and outside Johor in the next few years and focus on the high-end property market.

He said the company was targeting the Klang Valley region where demand for such properties was good and Johor Baru where the number of high-end house buyers was growing steadily.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2004, JLand revenue rose 50% to RM108.4mil, while its pre-tax profit almost doubled to RM36.2mil from RM18.6mil in 2003.

Source : The Star  25/5/2005