The Malaysian construction industry lacks skills, declares Dinesh K Nambiar, managing director of WTW Bovis Sdn Bhd. The company is the Malaysian entity of Bovis Lend Lease, a global project and construction management company operating in more than 30 countries worldwide.

The property auction market in the Klang Valley is expected to stay quiet till 2Q2010 as prospective bidders take year-end breaks or mull the fixed 5% Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT), auctioneers say.

KUALA LUMPUR: AmanahRaya-REIT Managers Sdn Bhd, manager of AmanahRaya REIT has proposed to acquire two properties from Amanah Raya Bhd, trustee for Kumpulan Wang Bersama.

KUALA LUMPUR; Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O) is set to launch the first block of its Quayside Seafront Resorts Condominium within its Seri Tanjung Pinang development in Penang in 1Q2010. The project, with a gross development value of RM1.8 billion, comprises seven blocks next to Straits Quay, an international marina and retail landmark on the island.

HANOI: Hanoi plans to put open five more luxury hotels, offering an additional 2,000 rooms during 2010, the National Tourism Year, according to a report Friday Jan 15 by Vietnamese news agency, VNA.

KUALA LUMPUR: Fraser Place Kuala Lumpur, a newly completed luxury serviced apartment project, expects its room occupancy to increase to 65 per cent as business travel picks up this year.

"The economy is sort of stabilising, with corporate travellers coming back to Malaysia for business," said Fraser Place General Manager, Shirley Lai.

KOTA KINABALU: The Transport Ministry will no longer tolerate further delays in its development projects, especially in upgrading or putting up new infrastructures. Its minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat said any problem on the part of the contractors must immediately be conveyed to the ministry in order to work out immediate solutions.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway City Bhd (SunCity) aims to list its real estate investment trust (REIT) this year, said managing director for property investment Ngeow Voon Yean.

The listing of the REIT with an estimated value of between RM3 billion and RM4 billion would however depend on the recovery in the economy, he said.

LOS ANGELES: When a property developer pulled out of a planned 65-home subdivision in Portland Oregon in 2008 because of the collapsing real estate market, a conservation group saw an opportunity.

KUALA LUMPUR: Despite initial concerns from the Brickfields community over the Traffic Dispersal System (under the Federal Government's stimulus package) for the area and KL Sentral, dialogues held between the community and Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) and City Hall (DBKL) have been constructive, Datuk Raja Nong Chik Datuk Raja Zainal Abidin, Minister of Federal Territories and Urban Wel