Description

Compile a list of popular tourist destinations and Penang’s celebrated Gurney Drive will almost certainly appear among some of Malaysia’s most-touted prestige projects. The approximately 2-kilometre stretch of road is a popular foodie destination and was once a promenade hugging the northernmost coastline of Penang Island historically known as North Beach.

Gurney Drive stretches from one of Penang Island’s oldest and busiest intersections, opposite Sunrise Tower, to the 8 Gurney condominium at the other end. In addition to Gurney Drive’s historical significance, the vintage homes, spacious gardens, and seafood restaurants facing the shore helped earn this stretch of road global recognition among international tourists.

With the median price for properties along Gurney Drive coming up to around RM850 psf, only the most frequented establishments remain standing among new high-rise condominiums, shopping centres, and hotels.

The coastline began to change more rapidly in 2016, when returns from investments into high-density developments spurred reclamation works. Conducted by Tanjung Pinang Development Sdn Bhd (TPD), a subsidiary of Eastern & Oriental Berhad partly owned by the state government via the Penang Development Corporation, the effort produced an additional 131 acres of buildable land as of September 2019.

Of the 131 acres of new buildable land, 40 acres will apparently be set aside for public amenities such as a beach, a mangrove grove, and an area for food and beverage outlets. Starting early next year, the remaining 91 acres will become the Gurney Wharf development, a seafront public park planned with a mall, two hotels, a business centre, wellness suites, and a water taxi pier.

With the upcoming Gurney Wharf development marking Gurney Drive’s incorporation into Penang’s second Central Business District, and considering the results of a similar exercise that began in 1997 in Seri Tanjung Pinang, property values along the Gurney Drive waterfront are almost certainly expected to rise rapidly.

Even with reclamation works only scheduled to be completed in 2022, the median price psf in Seri Tanjung Pinang has risen from just over RM400 psf in 2010 to almost RM700 psf in 2020. Current prices for existing properties along Gurney Drive range from RM1,000 psf for units in Gurney Villa at one end, to RM510 psf in 8 Gurney at the other end.

With facilities such as financial institutions and hospitals within walking distance, the trajectory of development along Gurney Drive is expected to continue down the coastline to Fort Cornwallis – and perhaps, one day, to the exact point where a certain intrepid explorer representing the British East India Company first set foot on the island over two centuries ago.