A CASHED-up Sunland Group is patiently waiting for the full extent of the credit-crisis shakeout before pouncing on new development opportunities. Chief executive Sahba Abedian said the company, which has come through the crisis largely unscathed, was likely to start buying again early next year. We are continually ass-essing projects and, with our gearing levels where they are, we have significant capacity to take advantage (of opportunities)," he said."But we are very patient and we will continue to exercise patience to pick up the prize assets as and when they become available. Mr Abedian said banks were showing more leniency with borrowers than in previous downturns by holding back on foreclosures. The reality of that situation is that it just prolongs the inevitable and, at some point, the non-performing assets have to be put back on the block, and I think that will be early next year," he said. Sunland founder and dir-ector Soheil Abedian said the latest market downturn was like any of the three that the company had weathered over the past 25 years. Mr Abedian said Sunland's counter cyclical approach to the market had served it well, along with its expansion into the Dubai market earlier this decade. Sunland has always moved in a different pattern to traditional developers. The vision of our board is to fundamentally do something that the market doesn't want to do. When people buy, we sell; when people sell, we buy. Mr Abedian said projects such as Q1, Circle on Cavill and Lumiere were all seeded at a time when many other developers were questioning the strength of the market. All of the development sites were bought during a property market ebb, while many of its non core assets were sold at market peak. Among the assets sold were Sunleisure and Sunkids, bought by MFS (now known as Octaviar) at the end of 2006 for $105 million. Meanwhile, Sunland's activities in Dubai have positioned the company to weather the latest market downturn. But many have questioned the sustainability of development activity in the United Arab Emirates and whether an asset bubble is forming. Mr Abedian remains confident about the region. It would be childish of anybody to say any economy would prove 100 per cent secure," he said. But Dubai is a hub now of the massive wealth of the oil-producing countries. The wealth that has been created (by rising oil prices) has been a catalyst for creating a new economy ... catering for almost a third of the population of the world. In reality, there is not so much land there that you could say it will last forever. Mr Abedian said Dubai's property market was being supported by strong immigration figures. Dubai alone is issuing 25,000 visas a month, a number four times the interstate migration rate for the whole of Queensland. While Sunland is under-taking $4 billion in work in Dubai, its gearing, at 14 per cent, remains extremely low by corporate standards, thanks to Dubai's system of quarterly instalments for property bought off the plan -- similar to progress payments to a project builder. That is the beauty of the region; the risk has been (diminished)," said Mr Abedian. Sunland still has 30 projects across Australia and has the sixth largest landbank of the listed developers. Although it remains on track for another rise in profits this year, Sunland's shares are half their value at the end of last year, falling victim to poor sentiment towards the property sector.
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