Property Malaysia

I was asked by two readers to review this service apartment by the Low Yat group, so we sniffed around for news about this place. Then the other day, we were surprised to see it at the Homebuyer Expo. So after hearing the sales pitch and studying the much talked-about location, we hope our readers will benefit from our review here.

First, we have a good pal who has been associated with Low Yat for more than a decade. He enjoys good relationship with the top management there, however he had more a mouthful to say about this place. We won’t repeat most of it here, but we are inclined to agree that the location of the apartment is not to everyone’s fancy.

The apartment will be connected physically to the existing Coronade Hotel (but no through passage between the two buildings). Coronade Hotel is opposite Bukit Bintang Plaza.

The sales personnel was more than appalled at our opinion of the location. She’s got a point though, the place has it’s highlights, like Bintang Walk, JW Marriott, the monorail, BB Plaza/Lot 10/Sg.Wang Plaza/Imbi Plaza/Starhill Gallery/Berjaya Times Square. But still, it’s not the first place you think to buy a condo in the city…

So who are they targeting for this development? Obviously, investors looking to rent out their units to business travelers, international students, yuppies who prefer to stay in the area, etc. With that in mind, they have designed the place accordingly, with 34 different design (mostly variants of the same theme) and pretty small units, starting from about 500sq.ft. to about 1100sq.ft.

With this arrangement, there is a wide range of choices depending on the location and unit configuration to choose from for the interested buyer. One word of caution though, some units are facing the existing hotel, so you may have to consider how important the view is to you.

Understandably, the development is hard-pressed for space here, they have to make do with it. But they make up for it with 5-star hotel-like facilities, like a lavish boutique entrance (we’ll have to see how that turns out), skyline swimming & wading pool (we’re assuming they’re referring to the view…), housekeeping, landscaped gardens on sky terrace, fully equipped gym, and pretty much anything you’d expect in a good hotel.

Everything else is as expected – maintenance fee, limited parking, traffic problem, frequent road closures in the area, etc.

And so, finally, what’s our view of the place? OK, Bukit Bintang – love it, or hate it. If you’re an investor, and can see the rental potential there, go view it. If you’re looking to stay in this area, consider it. If you’re not, then we won’t say more.

We are currently preparing to review some prime developments in the city, which we will publish in the next few days, mean time we found this excellent article in Money magazine (under CNN.com) that tackles the “The three myths of condo investing“.

According to the article, the three myths to avoid are:

• MYTH 1: Get in early and you’ll be guaranteed a profit.
• MYTH 2: Creative mortgages lower your payments and guarantee positive cash flow.
• MYTH 3: You should buy in your backyard, where you know the landscape.

For the full article, check it out here…

Looks like there won’t be any let up in the super-luxury condo launches in the KLCC area. Already we have developments like The Binjai and Troika (recently launched to resounding success), now there will be another one launched some time next year.

The Edge reports that a proposed serviced apartment, situated on the vacant 900,000sq.ft. Lot C (next to the Mandarin Oriental), will be developed together with the extension to Suria KLCC. The whole development will be a 60-storey building comprising of a six-storey retail podium, and 21-storey office office block in the mid-section and a 26-storey serviced apartment.

The RM500mil project, owned by KLCC Property Holdings Bhd (KLCCP), will commence construction in February 2006. According to the report, the company has begun talks with Oakwood Asia Pacific, which has been chosen to operate the serviced apartment.

This was announced during the company’s AGM held on Aug 18 recently.

So looks like another high end condo will enter the fray. KLCCP already launched the Binjai last year, which is located at the other end of the KLCC park, at the corner of Jalan Binjai, Persiaran KLCC and Jalan Stonor.

We look forward to more news on this serviced apartment.

Some readers have requested for a directory of real estate agents in Malaysia, so we have listed some of the ones we know and have dealt with, mostly including the big ones around. Please be reminded that there are MANY, MANY more agents out there, this list is NOT comprehensive or represent ANY sort of preference.

We are NOT affliated to any one of them, it is just a quick reference for those who need to find one or get their contacts.

If any of you know any major ones missed out here, or want to point out an error, please leave a comment.

Today Property Malaysia takes a break from reviewing new homes and talking about the market or industry news (due to some temporal loss of morale). Today we pay homage to one of the earliest large scale public housing projects in Kuala Lumpur, the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Flats, or better known as the Pekeliling Flats.

Pekeliling flats in the last few decades, had become an ageing relic of a bygone era, an established landmark to the millions of people that pass by on the ERL and Jalan Tun Razak everyday. Thousands of families – Malays, Chinese, Indians and others – live in the small units, in the heart of the old city, sandwiched between Kg. Baru, Sentul and gleaming freeways.

Residents have become immune to the inherent problems and complaints – rotting garbage everywhere, dangerous dark corridors, parking congestion, traffic noise, access problems, unsightly balconies, clogged pipes, the list goes longer and longer as the years go by. But the residents, by and large have had no other choice but to stay put in the apartments they moved in since the 60’s. Why? Some of my colleagues who stay there can’t afford more expensive housing anywhere else, some depend on the good transport system the area provides to earn their living, most of them are generations born there with nowhere to go.

How did the Pekeliling Flats come about? Perhaps most senior citizens from the city can give a better account of its genesis, but in the late sixties, there a huge demand for cheap housing in the young city to cope with the sudden influx of emigrants from all over the country. Kg. Baru was already established, so mass low cost flats with small units seems like the natural solution. Pekeliling was chosen for obvious reasons: close proximity to Kg. Baru and the government offices, good road and public transport system, plus it was at that time almost of at the edge of the city centre (of course at that time KL was not a city yet).

As the years went by, the nation and city grew bigger and more affluent, somehow the Pekeliling flats filled up to its brim and started to show its age.

I have passed by the place a million times, but the most memorable visit was my last one. It was for my good friend Dave’s wedding dinner. The wedding was held at the Tamil Methodist Church in nearby Sentul, and the dinner was at the multi-purpose hall in Pekeliling.

After years of deliberation and public forums, the government has finally decided to relocate the dwellers to the new flats in Sri Rampai (awarded to Kejuruteraan Bintai Kindenko Sdn Bhd) and the exodus has currently begun (see the Star Metro dated August 19, 2005). While I was at my previous firm many years ago, the complany was partially involved in of the many proposals to redevelop the place.

And what of the precious where the flats are located? The site will be rebuilt as a mixed development project (awarded to Asie Sdn. Bhd. for RM2bil) which will commence in mid-2006.

And so finally the sun has set on one of the earliest public housing projects in our country. Many of the dwellers are sad to leave the place, it had become one of the true melting pots of racial harmony and a snapshot of a country’s journey from the independence years to a developed nation. Others still, are only too happy to bid adieu to the flats. But however you see it, along with it goes a piece of our nation’s history, and a million memories of the humble Malaysian.

Further to our earlier post on the haze earlier, we wish to clarify that it was not our intention to imply that any particular company or project is losing money or not doing well due to the haze, what we meant was that the haze is causing the Malaysian property market to lose out on potential sales at the height of the haze.

We all hate the haze, and all of us were affected by it.

We wish to reiterate we are not directly implying that any particular company is losing money or any sort of revenue or receiving negative publicity. To any readers, buyers and companies who may have misunderstood the wording, we wish to apologize for the confusion or ill feeling arising thereof.

Anyway, the post has been removed before any more confusion arises. Thanks for understanding.

“On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it” -Jules Renard (Kiaraville sales tagline)

We were out looking for another development launch around Mont’Kiara the other day (it’s a bad thing for a property launch when people can’t find your sales office!), but we found Kiaraville. Since we were fed up of looking for the other launch, we parked our car and checked out this place we have been seeing featured in The Edge and Trends magazine.

We were quite pleasantly surprised.

First the location. A lot can be said about the conquest of forest reserve and nice greenery by condos and luxury homes in Bukit Kiara, so we won’t go into it. What is obvious is that the entire area right from Desa Sri Hartamas all the way up to the Segambut road / Wilayah Mosque has become a status symbol among housebuyers, making it the new (and much better) Bangsar.

We can rattle off the long list of up-market projects completed and under construction there, but let’s talk about Kiaraville today. To get there, turn off the Sprint highway after Desa Sri Hartamas, follow the imposing walled road. Then turn right at Mont’Kiara, pass the well guarded Sunrise territory, and go ALL the way to the end of the road, past the dozens of worker camps and ongoing projects.

It’s located next to the NKVE highway, and with existing greenery and a decent view of the KL skyline. The advantage of the condo is that there are two bungalow projects just next to it, thereby guaranteeing an unobstructed view in that direction.

As for the condo itself, the first impression we got was a many different unit types set in 6 different towers (of varying heights), giving buyers a good range of choice. Some blocks are 9 floors, some are 18 floors. Each floor has 1-6 units, ensuring an excellent mix of height, view and pricing for everyone.

We kind of like some of the unit layout. They have introduced many corners, instead of straight walls. This give a angular façade outside, and interesting nooks and crannies inside. Another interesting feature is the covered balcony with ample windows, which they call ‘lanai’. Very interesting concept. Furthermore, French windows are preferred here.

The common facilities provided are above the average in the market, with gym, function room, multiple pools (including play pool and a kid’s pool), squash and tennis courts, private walled garden and the works. Parking is provided in 3 levels of basement. The development is enveloped in lush greenery, something which is very attractive and appealing to potential buyers. This aspect of landscaping is very easy and affordable for developers to implement, however sad to say most condo developers we see prefer to fill up every available space with parking lots or grey inefficient structures. Score brownie points for Kiaraville.

We were very impressed with the timber decked pool lounge with a cascading pool, surrounded by shady trees. The entrance was equally impressive, with a fair-faced curved concrete wall inviting the visitor in to Kiaraville. A touch of class, I must say. The architect for the project is none other than BEP Akitek, one of the premier architect firms in the country. (Incidentally, one of the partners, the late Dato’ Kington Loo, was a personal acquaintance).

Being in Mont’Kiara, it suffers/enjoys the usual problems/perks. First the perks: High class address, expatriate tenants, good return on investment, near to international schools. Near to KL, shopping paradise, gourmet food heaven in Desa Sri Hartamas. Near to Sprint, NKVE, LDP, Jalan Duta. Then the problems: Only one access road at Mont’Kiara at the moment. You cannot even begin to imagine to congestion during peak hour. There is another alternative route planned out to KL, but that’s in the future. Area will suffer from over-development soon.

The sales and marketing for this project is handled by an international real estate agent, in association with a local agent.

For the record, this is a joint venture between Binaderas with Singapore property giant Capitaland (no relations to the Malaysia company Capital Land) and OCBC Bank, Singapore. Binaderas is owned by the same people from Ireka Corporation, who have a property arm called i-Zen, currently also marketing some projects in the area (opposite Plaza Mont’Kiara). Many of the units are actually booked for the coming launch in Hong Kong, so that may be a good sign for investors looking for appreciation in price.

Check out Property Malaysia’s review on some of the the other projects in Mont’Kiara / Sri Hartamas:

Changkat View
Hartamas Regency 2
Kiara 1888
Kensington Park
Kiaraville
Kiaramas Ayuria
Hijauan Kiara
The Verve Suites
Tiffani by i-ZEN
Boulevard Tower, Solaris Dutamas
Mont’Kiara Meridin

This is will be the last post on the Top 30 Developers in Malaysia, we promise (well, at least for this year). For the record (and those who can’t afford the RM5 copy of the…), we’ll list the 30 developers, according to the overall ranking. Below that, we’ll list the 7 newcomers into the list, and finally the unfortunate 7 that got bumped off the list. Just like on MTV.

1. SP Setia Bhd (check out our developer profile here.)
2. IOI Properties Bhd
3. IGB Corporation Bhd
4. Sunway City Bhd.
5. MK Land Bhd
6. Sime UEP Properties Bhd
7. Bandar Raya Developments Bhd
8. Boustead Properties Bhd
9. Island & Peninsular Bhd
10. Sunrise Bhd
11. Glomac Bhd
12. UDA Holdings Bhd
13. E&O Property Development Bhd
14. Naim Cendera Holdings Bhd
15. Petaling Garden
16. YTL Land & Development Bhd
17. Talam Corp Bhd
18. Dijaya Corp Bhd
19. Paramount Corp Bhd
20. Selangor Properties Bhd
21. Country Heights Holdings Bhd
22. Plenitude Bhd
23. Daiman Development Bhd
24. PJ Development Holdings Bhd
25. Mah Sing Group Bhd
26. SHL Consolidated Bhd
27. GuocoLand (M) Bhd
28. Pelangi Bhd
29. WCT Land Bhd
30. LBS Bina Group Bhd

New Entries into the top 30 this year:
14.Naim Cendera Holdings Bhd
22.Plenitude Bhd
24.PJ Development Holdings Bhd
25.Mah Sing Group Bhd
28. WCT Land Bhd
29.SHL Consolidated Bhd
30. LBS Bina Group Bhd

Out of the Top 30 this year:

1. Equine Capital Bhd
2. Metro Kajang Holdings Bhd
3. Worldwide Holdings Bhd
4. Malton Bhd
5. United Malayan Land Bhd
6. Negara Properties Bhd
7. Asia Pacific Land Bhd

   Take some time to browse our site, there are many posts regarding the developers mentioned above…

   (you know what webmasters say, build lots of outgoing links on your site!
   

You know Americans always say 3 most important things in real estate is “location, location, location”.

It seems Tiaraville in SS16 of Subang Jaya is set to benefit from good ‘location’. It’s right next to Carrefour, and within walking distance to the KTM commuter station, Subang Parade and the SS16 government office complex. So, basically, the centre of the Subang Jaya sub-universe. Then there’s easy access to the Federal Highway, Glenmarie, NPE, Kesas and NKVE.

Tiaraville is actually a follow-on phase of the strangely named e-Tiara serviced apartment which is next to it.

We went to view the show unit and sales office on a Sunday, and were caught in a traffic jam due to a road diversion caused by some infrastructure upgrading. We can imagine how terrible the crawl would be on a weekday. At peak hour.

At first impression, the building is extreme tacky coloured, with a brownish-yellow ochre façade. Due to the massive number of units, the multiple towers are built on a common multi-leveled parking podium. Not the most contemporary of condo designs, and it shows.

Most of the units are small, from 800 to 1028sq.ft. with very tight 2+1 or 3 rooms. This would mean they are targeting college students and investors, and not so much the urban family which generally go for bigger units (and with more rooms). There is even two types of units with a ‘secret garden’ concept, which looks suspiciously like an extra large terrace (which translates to a higher price with unusable space). Since there was no show unit for it, it remained a ‘secret’.

You can tell we weren’t really impressed with the show unit. There wasn’t much innovation to see, everything was basically quite old-fashion or unspectacular. From the over-the-top koi pond concept, IKEA furnished show unit (I’m beginning to think show units for developers constitute IKEA biggest customers…), to mirrors on walls to give an impression of bigger space, etc.

OK, enough negativity. It does have some redeeming points. Did we mention the location? It also provides a lot of facilities, on par with other projects in its category. Some of them are like multi-leveled security, broadband internet access, nursery, housekeeping facilites, squash courts and even a musical fountain and pool shaped like a piano. In fact they are going with the music theme with some of the design of the common facilities. Did we mention the koi pond overdose?

Besides this, the developer is also marketing the Akina e-suite (what the heck is an ‘e-suite’? A virtual room in cyberspace?!). There is also a show unit of this for this studio apartment, which is sized at about 500sq.ft. You know the thing with studio apartments…

What can we say in conclusion? To be frank, its not that all that bad, it’s just that marketing could have been much better. And with the prime location, they know it will sell like hot cakes to those who want it, so they take a lot of liberty in other areas at that expense. But it is priced at a slight premium, but I can foresee a lot of Subang Jaya people overlooking that fact. Undoubtedly, it will well, and will yield good rental returns for investors. Not sure how many urban families will want to stay there for long, though.

Actually we were not planning to visit this Desa Impiana in Puchong Prima, but I met someone from Mitrajaya the other day, and she had told me about this new launch. Plus someone said that they served Delifrance on weekends.

So en route to Dana 1, Sterling@PJ, Tiaraville (review all coming soon) and USJ 1 Avenue (read our review here), we stopped by to take a look. We have never gone so far into Puchong Prima, even though we’re very familiar with the Puchong Perdana area.

We we’re surprised to find how developed the area was. There whole area, developed by Mitrajaya, one of the biggest infrastructure contractors in Malaysia. There was an established commercial area with retailers like Guardian, KFC and supermarkets. There is also a few rows of light industrial shops, but it is well contained and does not detracts from the shops.

Then there is a plot of land which they are developing some apartments, which was launched earlier to good response. Slightly further in is the newer Desa Impiana phase. Beyond that the road ends with a few existing low cost flats developed by others.

So coming back to this Desa Impiana. Currently launched are 144 units of 4 storey duplexes, which is the one we viewed. There are 6 blocks, each with 24 units. It is part of a bigger gated development, presumably with more duplex units and other high end homes.

For this current launch, there are two types of duplex units for sale, and there is a show unit for each type. One is the intermediate unit, the other is the corner unit. Both are basically the same, except for the yard area. So what do we get for RM252,000?

Well, we feel that the duplex unit of 1890sq.ft. is practically the same as buying a double storey link house, as the build-up and price per square foot is the same. Except that you don’t have driveway and lawn, and your yard doesn’t compared with a standard 10 feet backyard. But instead, you get a high security development with clubhouse and swimming pool facilities (to be built soon), and beautiful landscape gardens. Since it is a freehold strata title, the development is a truly exclusive area, with 24-hour all round security.

As for the finishing materials, we find it of reasonable quality, including the timber flooring. The layout of the unit is also quite appealing, with 3 almost equally-sized bedrooms upstairs (including the master). However, only the master bedroom has an attached bath. But overall, the living, entrance foyer and dining is large enough to support a mid-sized family.

Duplex units aren’t really the ‘in’ thing in Malaysia as yet, usually there are only a few units as part of a larger condo development. But as for Desa Impiana, they have marketed it in an interesting way, we feel that it will sell well as a alternative to cookie-cutter link houses, in the coming months.

But one drawback. There is only one access to the entire Puchong Prima area, and that is through Puchong Perdana. The low cost flats, morning market, narrow road and roadside stalls detract somewhat from the mid-market Desa Impiana, so buyers have to consider that.

As we mentioned earlier, Mitrajaya are no small-timers when it comes to construction, and we can certainly look forward to more launches and new areas in the future.