DEVELOPER EXTRAORDINAIRE
Peter Chan, on The Haven – with devout endurance has made it the “The Pride of Ipoh, and Envy of The Nation”.
BY YVONNE YOONG
No mountain too high and no challenge too great to overcome in the pursuit of excellence. These are the espoused values of seasoned entrepreneur Peter Chan whose remarkable traits of sheer grit, staying power and tenacity have laid a strong foundation for The Haven which is now widely recognised as “The Pride of Ipoh and Envy of The Nation”.
The Haven is a 5-star rated luxury family eco-resort hotel and residences development spanning 15.3 acres. Uniquely designed fringing a breathtaking scenic hillside encompassing a 280-million-year-old limestone formation, The Haven consists of three 26-storey towers embracing an all-inclusive concept.
It encompasses 516 units of a diverse usage of hotel, home, second home, home-office, vacation home and retirement residences for its global and local owners, residents and guests. In its hotel habitude, The Haven has thus far attracted more than 150,000 foreign tourists from over 120 countries, and growing.
Purposively built as a luxury family resort, the beauty of The Haven lies in its offering of all-inclusive comprehensive facilities that cater to the entire family spanning all generations.
The facilities are comprehensive including a 5-level swimming pool (lap pool, leisure pool, jacuzzi, children pool and baby pool), children playground, children playroom, gym, spa, restaurants, ballroom, seminar rooms, jogging track, amphitheatre, viewing deck, yoga deck, tennis court, basketball court, squash court, badminton court, table tennis room and two 5-storey covered car parks and ample guest parking.
Worthy of mention too are its universal access amenities, well-managed security and Cuisines Restaurant which impressively ranks No.1 out of 635 restaurants in Ipoh.
Another significant attraction lies in its location, which is at the fringe of the forest and yet within 15 minutes to Ipoh City. The inter-connectivity to KL, Penang and other cites is most favourable as it is positioned just four minutes to the highway exit, with only one traffic light enhancing the convenience and desirability as a resort hub.
The Haven’s high standards have indeed not gone unnoticed with Chan garnering a cluster of awards including its latest acknowledgement by KSI for its award of “Outstanding Entrepreneurship” at the recent ASEAN Summit 2025 and yet another, as “Best Geopark Hotel and Residence” in the Nation to be conferred next month. However, Chan has no intention to just rest on his laurels. Even as he steadfastly moves with passion and purpose towards his next goal.
Spurred by the success of his award-winning The Haven development in Ipoh only served as fuel to repeat its success story as he set sail on another ambitious quest to establish The Haven in Bintan, Indonesia.
While his success is prolific, Chan remains level-headed and grounded. Just what makes him stand out is his hardworking nature and firm belief in laying a solid foundation for his development that would only become more successful with the passing years.
Early Roots
Born in Singapore, Chan graduated from the University of Singapore and held a Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) degree in 1971, having also completed an advanced management programme in INSEAD France.
Armed with more than four decades of deep and immense business and management experience both local and overseas – in New York, London, Australia, Hong Kong and China – even his early years were marked by tenacious determination – his extraordinary contributions Malaysia can be expected to continue unabated.
Journeying Through The Different Seasons
“An Australian citizen today, I first moved to Malaysia in 2000 as CEO of NV Multi Corp Berhad, a company listed on the first board of Bursa Malaysia,” he said tracing his career journey.
“After a two-year stint, I commenced the property developments. I came to Ipoh to help ‘a friend of a friend’ beginning with 576 low-cost units of Permai Lake View. The project is now recognised as “the best low-cost development in the world”. Following this, I helped “another friend of a friend” reviving a project of 175 units of terraced houses at Subang Galaxy II in Selangor, which was completed successfully with the prices appreciating 3-fold!” Next, he turned his attention to developing The Haven in 2009.
Following the success of The Haven in Ipoh, he set his sights on the next project in The Haven in Bintan, Indonesia.
The journey has been fraught with extreme challenges and he recalls there were “doubts and even deliberate sabotage” which only served to make him and his team strive harder to succeed and instil in them a deeper faith and reliance of Almighty God, regarding whom he firmly expounds that HE “never lets down the righteous”. Succeed, he and his team did as seen reflected in the illustrious cluster of awards The Haven has been bestowed with.
Award Upon Award
“Every award is different — giving us different recognition each time. This KSI award is significant to us as it is an ASEAN property award. We are desirous for ASEAN to know about us as ASEAN is now the growth region in the world as our next development – The Haven Bintan – is in Indonesia.”
Effective Leadership
Leadership to him, is based on selflessness. He crystallised this act of true leadership as being intertwined with five pillars which include Selflessness, Meaningfulness, Effectiveness, Lasting (quality), and all done with Love. Put together, we have the acronym “SMELL”. Interestingly, he further elaborated that the “SMELL” would be ‘fragrant’ to those who perceive his message but ‘foul’ to some who are lost in their journey of Life!
“Selflessness is the key attribute which is a very rare, all-important attribute of the leader. The selfless leader will possess wisdom. If he is selfless, he will be infused with wisdom,” he said.
His actions “must be based on truth, and truth is based on God”. The leadership that is based on truth, will be lasting so the leader cannot fail. In fact, when carried out perfectly, it (the results) will last forever”.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
“All our success is teamwork. Teamwork is always crucial as one will never be able to succeed alone,” reiterated Chan.
When quizzed on the little known aspects of The Haven, he related that the Group’s philosophy, objectives and goals are little known. They form the many pillars which include the following:-
The Philosophy, Objective and Goals set by Peter Chan :
To Perform Extraordinarily
•Complete the development well.
•Create happy and harmonious communities for our purchasers.
•Preservation of nature and civic consciousness.
To build and maintain relationships
•Including government, press, finance, industry, contractors, suppliers, staff and of course, home owners and customer relationships.
•Material success is meaningless if relationships are not developed alongside.
Profit is only our “Third Objective”.
•Life and what comes in the afterlife are what motivates us to be responsible corporate citizens.
•Extraordinary service, creating value, providing quality lifestyle and stimulating harmonious communities are paramount.
To achieve our goals, the company has set the highest of standards of conduct. These comprise:
• Absolute honesty
• Full dedication
• A willingness to take the absolute challenge in their career with us
• A willingness to serve others and place others before self
The standards set are indeed high and exemplary. Indeed, we are most hopeful that the industry, nation and world at large will be able to comprehend, accept and emulate the objectives, directions and standards set. We now understand the reasons that Chan and The Haven have been so well known and recognised in the industry and nation.
The Haven
