Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) – TRX: Kuala Lumpur’s Next-Generation Financial District Takes Shape

Seventy acres of fenced-off construction debris have disappeared from Jalan Tun Razak, replaced by the steel-and-glass silhouette of a brand-new skyline. Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) is no longer a promise on a master plan; it is a functioning district with tenants, shoppers and residents, and it is quietly rewriting the geography of Malaysia’s capital.

From barren site to integrated city-within-a-city

Nearly 60 percent of the master plan is now delivered. The 106-storey Exchange 106 office tower, completed in late 2019, already houses regional finance, technology and professional-services names and has pushed its occupancy past sixty per cent with headline rents of RM15–17 psf per month. Next door, The Exchange TRX mall opened in November 2023 with more than 400 stores including Malaysia’s first Apple Store and a 10-acre landscaped park spread across its roof. Lendlease and TRX City report initial retail occupancy of ninety-five per cent and weekend footfall that rivals Pavilion Bukit Bintang less than a kilometre away. Above the mall, six high-rise TRX Residences towers are topping out; over ninety per cent of the two thousand released apartments are already sold at launch prices averaging RM2,300–2,800 psf, a new benchmark for Kuala Lumpur luxury condominiums.

The district’s attraction is hard-wired into its infrastructure. TRX station is the Klang Valley’s only MRT interchange, linking Lines 1 and 2 and putting 64 stations within a 45-minute ride. Six arterial roads and a 3.5-kilometre subterranean roadway network feed basement loading bays and 2,000 parking spaces, keeping ground-level streets largely pedestrian. Sustainability credentials are just as robust: TRX is Malaysia’s first LEED-ND Gold and GBI Platinum township, with on-site grey-water recycling that halves potable-water demand and drainage designed to withstand a 1-in-100-year storm.

Masterplan at a glance

Component	Key Facts	Status (May 2025)
Grade-A Offices	≈10 m ft² NLA across 8–10 towers	Exchange 106 62 % leased ; PwC-anchored tower breaks ground 2025
Retail & Lifestyle	1.3 m ft² mall under a 10-acre rooftop park	95 % leased, 400+ stores incl. first Apple Store MY
Residences	2,000+ luxury units in six towers	90 % of launched units sold
Hotel	471-key Kimpton (IHG)	Opening 2026 (under construction)
Public Space	10-acre TRX City Park	Planted with 150,000 native plants
Transport	Only MRT interchange linking Lines 1 & 2	64-station reach; opened March 2023

The numbers that matter to investors

Taken together, completed assets in TRX Exchange 106, the mall, Menara Prudential, Menara HSBC (Menara IQ), Menara Affin and early infrastructure carry an implied value in the RM15–20 billion range. Exchange 106 alone could be worth RM5–6 billion on a five-per-cent cap-rate once fully stabilised; the mall’s net rental stream supports a similar valuation. Land parcels transacted over the last decade clustered between RM2,800 and RM3,200 psf, placing TRX land on par with KLCC’s most expensive plots and all but guaranteeing a price floor for future development phases. Completed office space trades around RM1,200–1,800 psf, while the sold-out residences have set a new capital-value ceiling for high-rise living in the city.

Base-case projections suggest the district’s gross development value will reach roughly RM40 billion by 2030 as the second PwC-anchored office tower, a Kimpton hotel and remaining mixed-use parcels come online. A bullish scenario—faster GDP growth, stronger flight-to-quality and yield compression—could see GDV top RM50 billion and push net IRRs on office holdings into double digits; a bearish outcome tied to global recession or prolonged office oversupply could leave GDV near RM35 billion and returns barely in line with local mortgage rates.

Hidden Highlights That Make TRX Truly One-of-a-Kind

Most visitors see the soaring Exchange 106, the new MRT interchange and the 10-acre rooftop park—but a layer of engineering, sustainability and urban-design wizardry lies just beneath the surface. Here are the insider details that even regular patrons may miss, yet power TRX’s appeal as Kuala Lumpur’s next-generation CBD.

A three-storey park floating above six Olympic pools of soil

To create TRX City Park the developer craned up 10 Olympic-sized swimming-pools’ worth of soil deep enough (nearly two metres in places) to let mature rain-forest trees take root 30 metres in the air. The park shelters 150,000 plants covering 95 % indigenous species and is certified under SITES, the landscape equivalent of LEED, bringing true biodiversity into the urban core.

A five-kilometre subterranean traffic loop

Beneath the entire district runs a dual-level vehicular tunnel plus an extra utility deck that plugs directly into the SMART flood-relief tunnel. Opened in late 2023, the loop lets cars drop straight into basement parking and is forecast to cut surface congestion by 30 % along Jalan Tun Razak.

Cooling-as-a-Service instead of boiler-room chillers

The Exchange TRX mall and adjoining offices don’t own chillers at all. Climate control is bought as a utility from Singapore-based Kaer, which runs a high-efficiency district plant, bills tenants only for cold air delivered and carries the cap-ex on its books. It’s Malaysia’s first large-scale “Cooling-as-a-Service” deal and helps TRX hit aggressive carbon-reduction targets.

The city’s only two-line MRT interchange—and a marketing canvas

TRX Station is the Klang Valley’s largest underground interchange, linking Lines 1 & 2. Samsung’s recent “Galaxy Station” brand takeover shows the scale of its concourse; commuters walked through AI-themed digital tunnels weeks before the phone actually launched.

A skyline-sized light sculpture

Exchange 106 wears a 12-storey clear-glass crown sheathed in programmable LEDs. Patterns ripple across 2,800 individually addressable panels each night, turning the tower into a digital beacon visible for 20 km—a feature deliberately engineered into its tapered silhouette.

23 % of the district is true open space

Beyond the big park, TRX threads pocket gardens, bio-retention swales and shaded pedestrian streets between its towers—rare in a CBD built on RM3,000-per-sq-ft dirt. The master plan locks these green corridors into the strata by covenant.

Digital twin + smart operations

Sensors in lifts, air-handlers and even waste chutes feed a cloud-based digital twin so facilities teams can predict failures before they happen and fine-tune energy loads in real time. That back-end tech is invisible to shoppers, but it keeps utility bills low and augments ESG scores for institutional owners.

Hidden Feature	Why it Matters to Investors & Users
Cooling-as-a-Service plant	Cuts cap-ex for tenants and locks in predictable, lower-carbon operating costs
Five-km tunnel loop	Direct basement access; reduces surface traffic risk and boosts retail footfall
Programmable LED crown	City-scale branding asset; enhances night-time skyline recognition of the precinct
Deep-soil rooftop park	Real biodiversity (not just planter boxes) adds wellness value and rental premium
Two-line MRT interchange	Largest underground station in Malaysia; captures a 64-station commuter catchment
Pocket parks & bio-swales	23 % open space protected by covenant—future-proofs the district’s liveability

Take-away: TRX isn’t just another mixed-use project; it is a technology-laden, sustainability-driven ecosystem engineered down to its tunnels and utility pipes. For investors and occupiers that translates into lower operating risk, stronger ESG credentials and a long-term competitive moat few Southeast-Asian CBDs can match.

Tenants & Capital Momentum

HSBC spent RM1.04 billion on Menara IQ; Prudential and Affin Bank anchor their own towers; tech names like Ant Group, Huawei and Agoda now occupy Exchange 106. The lifestyle quarter’s retail roster brings first-to-market brands (Seibu, Apple) while F&B operators report weekend traffic rivalling Pavilion Bukit Bintang. Occupier gravitation is clear: Bursa Malaysia is reportedly in talks to relocate its HQ, signalling further flight-to-quality.

Pipeline & Upside

• PwC Tower (800 k ft²) breaks ground 2025; delivery 2029—pre-let de-risks vacancy.

• Remaining 40 % land to be parcelled for boutique offices, a possible fintech museum and an additional five-star hotel.

• Potential TRX Commercial REIT float after stabilisation could unlock liquidity and yield-seeking capital.

Still On the To-Do List

Gap	Current Status	Mitigation in Pipeline
Affordable / mid-market housing	None inside TRX	Future parcels may earmark mixed-income products
Night-time economy	Limited theatres / food street	Kimpton hotel & proposed cultural hub (under study)
First–Last-Mile links	Elevated bridge to Bukit Bintang unfinished; no cycle lane	Bridge completion 2026; KL’s Cycle KL network planned to extend
Large-plate office bias	Exchange 106 still ~1 m ft² vacant	Smaller flexible-office formats being marketed in remaining floors

What’s still missing

For all its momentum, TRX is not yet a fully rounded urban quarter. Affordable or even mid-market housing is absent, amplifying concerns that the district could become an exclusive enclave ring-fenced from surrounding working-class neighbourhoods. After dusk the precinct still relies on office workers and mall patrons; a theatre, cultural centre or late-night food district has yet to materialise, keeping the evening economy thin from Monday to Thursday. Exchange 106, with its 32,000-sq-ft floor plates, retains close to a million square feet of vacant space, proof that leasing velocity is strong but not unlimited. And while the MRT interchange is a triumph, first- and last-mile journeys remain challenging for cyclists and pedestrians crossing Jalan Tun Razak, especially on sale weekends when traffic queues back up the entrance ramps.

Outlook: a long-game, but the pieces are falling into place

None of these gaps appears structural. The Kimpton hotel, slated to open in 2026, will extend operating hours; a covered pedestrian spine to Pavilion should calm street crossings; and TRX City’s next land-release round is expected to reserve plots for civic or cultural uses that anchor the district after office hours. Most importantly, the Malaysian government’s RM2.8-billion infrastructure injection in 2018 insulated TRX from the 1MDB fallout and underscores its status as a national priority.

For investors the takeaway is clear: TRX is already redefining Kuala Lumpur’s commercial map, rents and sale prices are establishing a new upper band, and the remaining execution risk is decreasing with every tenant that signs a lease. The opportunity now is to secure a foothold before the final thirty per cent of land is spoken for. In a city where grade-A vacancy still hovers near the high teens, TRX is the one address bucking the trend—and that alone may justify a premium.