In the Bukit Bintang neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur, land deals have increased from RM200 per square foot (psf) in 1999 to RM7,000 psf in more recent transactions.

YTL Group is the corporate entity responsible for the transformation of Bukit Bintang's major thoroughfare.

Around 20 years ago, YTL acquired Lot 10 and the nearby Starhill shopping centres and opened Bintang Walk, which transformed the area into one of the country's hottest shopping and tourist destinations and fueled a real estate boom.

The main attraction of Bukit Bintang is a broad pedestrian walkway lined with outdoor cafes, restaurants, pop-up shops, and specialty businesses. At night, this area comes alive and is well-liked by both locals and tourists.

The JW Marriott hotel, Starhill, and Lot 10 were all taken up by YTL in 1999 when the neighbourhood was a high-crime red-light district. To stop further deterioration, YTL immediately requested official authority to build Bintang Walk. The government and City Hall replied quickly and favourably.

The late Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay, who led YTL Corporation Berhad, suggested a revitalised retail cluster in Kuala Lumpur. In Bukit Bintang, he built retail projects and gave the neighbourhood the name Bintang Walk.

Watches and cameras were the only duty-free goods offered in 1999, and YTL management remarked that these tenants were the only ones paying high rental rates and paying on time. Other retail goods were attracting duties as high as 40 per cent.

The government swiftly reduced taxes on other goods in a record-breaking four months after Tan Sri (Sir) Francis Yeoh, the executive chairman of YTL Corporation, requested it.

With branded goods free of duty, retailers from around the region and the world began to take notice and started to reinvest in retailing in Kuala Lumpur, Yeoh said.

Malaysia has now become a duty-free shopping destination, joining places like Hong Kong, Dubai, and Singapore.

Even CNN ranked Kuala Lumpur fourth out of the top 12 shopping locations in the world in 2013.

"It is not only the duty-free status of most goods within the country, which allow boutiques to offer a deeper discount, but also the generally lower costs of running a business in Malaysia, that give the country an edge over its neighbours.

"Smaller brands, for example, can, based on the lower running costs, afford to set up a larger boutique, something that they could not do in expensive cities, and can offer their customers the full brand experience, along with the availability of wider selections," he said in an interview.

Since then, the Bukit Bintang neighbourhood has seen a transformation into one of Kuala Lumpur's trendiest mall locations.

Of late, the area has seen more sophisticated malls sprouting around the fringes of the city proper at an unprecedented rate.

The Bukit Bintang Girls' School landmark on Jalan Bukit Bintang was demolished to build Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, a mixed-use urban development, comprising a seven-storey premier shopping mall with more than 700 retail outlets and restaurants.

The website states that 20 per cent of the retail mix is made up of new brands to Malaysia that have picked Pavilion KL as their first location.