'Paga Hill Estate to revolutionise and transform nation's capital'

THE Paga Hill estate will revolutionise Port Moresby and PNG’s capital city, says Paga Hill Estate Chairman Peter Barge.

The Paga Hill is Port Moresby’s first special economic zone, license number one, according to Mr Barge while speaking during the PNG Asia Investment conference. “Paga current Hill Estate adjoins the Port downtown area Moresby and is CBD slightly larger. It will be built out over the next 10 to 15 years and development construction has already started.” Mr Barge said.

The Paga Hill Estate project is 25 hectares adjoining downtown Port Moresby. It is said to be a comprehensive planned vision to transform Port Moresby which includes:

• 500,000 square metres of built development,
• 13,000 square metres of green and open space, and
• Cultural and tourist elements to transform the visitor experience.

Mr Barge said the estate will give a new identity for Port Moresby as the economy doubles and PNG’s profile grows as it is today on the world stage. “It will give a dramatic uplift to the nation’s capital,” Mr Barge said. “A new identity for Port Moresby, announcing PNG’s arrival to the world.”

The Estate will be comparative to Sydney’s Barangaroo development.

“The Barangaroo project transformed Sydney’s harbour and port area into a vibrant commercial residential and hospitality destination featuring at its core a casino and large restaurant precinct,” Mr Barge said.

“The Paga Hill estate is a similar scale project with a similar mix of components but will have an even greater relative impact on Port Moresby.

“PNG is entering a boom period with development of new resource projects that will launch and contribute substantially to the economy. However, Port Moresby’s office and residential prices are frequently compared to the likes of New York and here in Hong Kong.

“Many don’t realise that in PNG, there is only three per cent of land that is available for development nationwide,” Mr Barge explained. “There is a massive shortage of developable land in key locations.

“The resources projects under development attract probably thousands in of expatriates PNG as advisers, engineers, architects, lawyers, consultants and project managers to work and train the local population.

“All the embassies we know are expanding quite massively as PNG becomes more prominent on the world stage. With expatriate costs covered by the multinationals that are expanding in the country, high prices and high returns I believe will remain because of the limited supply of office and residential.

“These high returns that will be coming will be supplemented at Paga Hill because the Government has granted us special economic zone status. These benefits can be grouped into three stages.

“Benefits during construction are in the form of customs imports, and GST exemptions, expedited approvals, freeze on land holdings costs and all these will result in lower construction costs.

“The second stage is in the lease stage. There will be no income tax payable. All will improve development profitability for those partners that will be joining us.

“And during the ongoing operations, there’s accelerated depreciation, customs import and GST exemptions and no income tax during that period. These benefits are going to be applied to commercial tenants which is quite a unique factor. All these incentives improve cost and increase profitability for our investors.