GEOTRADE Sdn Bhd has become the first property developer in Penang to offer the guaranteed property investment return scheme to buyers of its Ferringhi Hills Resort project following yesterday's signing of a master policy for total maturity value of RM50mil with Malaysian Assurance Alliance Bhd (MAA Assurance).

Under the scheme, buyers of the project would receive a guaranteed sum assured of RM500,000 at the end of the maturity period of 35 years, Geotrade general manager Khoo Boo Yeang said.

Should the purchaser sell his property before the maturity period and made a capital gain, he would still be entitled for the guaranteed sum at the end of the 35-year period.

''The RM50mil is the commitment that Geotrade has made to all potential buyers of the project'', Khoo said after the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the master policy between Geotrade and MAA Assurance in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

MAA Assurance executive director and chief executive officer Ramlan Abdul Rashid said the scheme, underwritten by the company, was a group pure endowment payback scheme designed to pay a guaranteed sum to the insured should he or she survive upon the maturity of the policy.

According to Ramlan, the scheme is the third undertaken by MAA Assurance after a similar alliance with Country Heights and LBS Bina.

He said MAA Assurance would offer more of such schemes with other property developers in the near future.

On the Feringghi Hills Resort, Khoo said it would be completed within the next two years.

Comprising 24 bungalow lots and 18 three-storey semi-detached villas, the units are priced at between RM635,000 and RM1.6mil. Geotrade owns 120 acres of prime land in the Batu Ferringhi area which it plans to develop this parcel of land into affordable landed properties.

In another development, Bernama reported that MAA Assurance had denied any talks of merger between the company and a European insurer.

Source : The Star   8/4/2003