Thursday, March 26, 2009

What Is The True Value Of All NCR Land In Sarawak?

Taib Mahmud himself has admitted that there are at least 2 million acres of NCR land in Sarawak. See Sarawak Headhunter's post "You see, they (Taib & gang) have 7 million hectares of timber concessions. Apa itu?".

It could be more, but let us take this figure as true for the time being. Taib's regime grossly undervalues NCR land for the purpose of joint ventures by arbitrarily fixing a rate of RM1,200 per hectare (or RM485 per acre).

This rate has never been revised since the inception of the so-called "New Concept" of NCR land development by Taib's government almost 15 years ago, even though one would normally expect that there will be some increase in the value of the land over the years.

Who gains from this price-fixing? The joint-venture partners, usually Taib's family, henchmen and cronies who pay less to the native landowners, of course - if they even intend to pay.

What then is the real (market) value of NCR lands today? No official valuation has been done, but indications are that the current market value is in the region of RM1,500 to RM2,000 per acre (RM3,706 to RM4,942 per hectare) depending on the location and suitability of the land, still on the low side.

This would place the total value of all NCR lands in Sarawak at between RM7.41 billion to RM9.88 billion before development.

After development, the value could go as high as RM25,000 per acre (RM60,250 per hectare) or a total of RM120 billion for 2 million hectares, capable of generating conservatively at a rate of 5% return annually RM6 billion of income.

For reference, see this article "Why you should consider buying oil palm land now?" by Ong KL.

Assuming that there are 500,000 NCR landowners (could be less), this would mean that each of them would earn RM12,000 per year at least.

Surely an investment model could be developed that would ensure this? If the state government can't or won't do it, then PKR should.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The real value of the land is based on how much and waht you can grow on it and for how many generations you wish to keep it. So it's priceless for families who have to live on their land and who wants to keep it for future generations. The Dayaks should not trade their land for Maggi mees. This is what they'll do if they vote for BN. Taib and the BN doesn't deserve their votes.

NEIL said...

Land that are not survey are basically worthless.But if you have a plan and these land are resources full then it might be of value.But still without survey and title,nothing can be of value.