MK Land Holdings Bhd has recently ventured into the property market of India with a project worth RM3 billion in gross development value.

The project involves the development of affordable housing and retail shops on a 300-acre land in northern Bangalore. This venture is MK Land’s second foray into an overseas market after South Africa.

MK Land executive chairman and chief executive officer Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar has said, “We plan to develop 16,000 affordable homes and approximately 560 retail shops.” He added, “The demand for affordable homes in India is huge with the rising levels of urbanisation and this is a good start for our company (in expanding) to India.”

The project is a joint venture with Embassy Group of India and MKN Embassy Development Sdn Bhd. It will be placed under Milan Gateway Sdn Bhd where the holdings are 47.5 per cent MK Land, 47.5 per cent Embassy Group and five per cent MKN Embassy.

Tan Sri Mustapha has said that it was too early a projection of cost estimates but put forth that such projects in India requires a start-up capital of US$10 million. He added that the project will take more than five years.

Future selling prices of the units is expected to be in between RM100,000 and RM150,000.

According to Tan Sri Mustapha, MK Land has plans to dispose some of its land bank in the Klang Valley to improve cash flow and reinvest the capital. However, they are not currently in talks with any parties yet.

MK Land has an approximate land bank of 7,000 acres.