Property Malaysia

Some years back, when we first came to KL to work, we were asking around about traffic in KL because some of us had to travel a lot during work. Someone (who worked in the city for decades) told us the place with the worst traffic, peak hour or not. The thing with Bukit Bintang in the golden triangle is that are too many dense office buildings coming up in such a small area – interspersed by old city buildings like shophouses, pre-war homes and shopping districts.

But that is what makes Bukit Bintang such a beautiful place, the charm, history and nightlife, despite the problems.

Now let’s talk about the Pavilion. Most industry folks like us would be familiar with the long and interesting history of this piece of 12.6 acre land – formerly the Bukit Bintang Girls’ School facing the existing Starhill Shopping Gallery. A lot of parties, big and small, have at any one time, been linked to this so-called ‘last piece of prime property in the Golden Triangle’. Some years back, a few of our associates were asked to join this local mid-sized developer / contractor, who had intentions to take over the project with the financing of this HK conglomerate. Anyway, that also didn’t take off.

Fast forward to today. Construction in the Pavilion has been going on for almost 2 years now, Kuwait Finance House (read about them here and here) has bought over ownership of the entire project.

The masterplan of this project is quite well detailed, built around a massive shopping centre taking up most of the site – offering acres and acres of prime retail space to rival that of nearby Lot 10, Starhill, KL Plaza, Sg. Wang Plaza (not to mention that gargantuan Berjaya Times Square down the road, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish altogether…). Obviously, in the backdrop of the aging shopping district, the introduction of such a large and upmarket shopping mall is seen to be extremely lucrative. There is a planned hotel in the corner of the development, and also an office tower and block. Construction for the mall is at an advanced stage at the moment.

Right in the centre of the development, right above the mall is the two blocks of apartments called Pavilion Residences. The concept is akin to K Residence, the only difference here is that we expect this shopping mall to be fully occupied soon enough, unlike the ghost town that is Avenue K.

Currently, they’ve opened up Tower 2 for sale, and from what we gather from the sales personnel, they may not be selling out the other block, as some parties are in talks to buy it entirely.

The roof level of the shopping mall is used as the common facilities for Pavilion Residences, in what they term as the ‘Sky Garden’ with the usual amenities like sports courts, swimming pool, playground landscaped areas, gym, etc. They’ve also provided a grand formal entrance, and top notch security features. Each unit gets 2 or 3 parking spots depending on the size of your apartment. The entrance and zones for the residence parking is separated from the mall and office parking. A reasonable maintenance fee is charged.

The two towers are symmetrical, except one rises a few floors higher than the other. On the lower floors, there are 6 small units per floor. In the intermediate part of the tower, there are 3 per floor, and at the top there are a few units of duplexes and one mother of all penthouses (Forget it, someone has taken it).

For the lower units (6 per floor) they have small units ranging from 1,057sq.ft to 2,645sq.ft. The smallest ones have two bedroom, the rest have at least 3 bedrooms. The small 1,057 to 1,509sq.ft units come with the basic rectangular layout design, really not much frills. These would be the ones that appeal to investors looking to rent out to single expats and couples. Moving up, the units in the 2000sq.ft bracket are more spacious and suitable for families with children. These larger units have an impressive walk in wardrobe and attached bathroom for the master bedrooms. All the other rooms have attached bathrooms. Some have large balconies.

The units in the intermediate zone (3 units per floor) are from 3,394 to 4,227sq.ft and have 4 bedrooms. These are laid out in a long narrow fashion, something like the largest units in Tiffani, where there is a formal living and dining on one end of the unit, while the family area is far on the other end near the master bedroom. Good for entertaining guests and big gatherings. As you would expect, the master bedrooms here (or should we say ‘suites’) are obscenely large. Actually, everything here is large. Including the price tag.

Even higher up are three levels of duplex units, about 5,743 to 7,174sq.ft. The size of the balconies are bigger than our house. The attractive feature here s the double volume living and entrance foyer. There is a balcony / open deck that is also double volume, we bet the view from there would be fantastic.

One thing we noticed is that the designers have opted for circular columns slightly offset from the corner of the units, as opposed to rectangular columns flushed with the walls or at least in line with the walls. So what you get is a circular column in your rooms with a slight space between it and the wall… Another feature that is not available is the private lift lobby, most of the luxury KLCC condos have this. What you get here is the normal common lift lobby shared by all the units on the floor.

The units are well laid out, although there isn’t much space to work with for the smaller units. The developer is packaging a lot of freebies together, check with them for the details.

The price is about RM1000psf on the average. So you know who can or cannot afford to stay here.

The view, while can’t be experienced now, will be awesome. The site is already closely surrounded by almost all the most recognizable skyscrapers in the city, with the exception of the Twin Towers which is not too far away.

If you’re not one to brave the jam everyday, you have a wide choice of transportation around here. Other too many buses and cabs around here (yeah, like the residents here are going to take the RapidKL…) you have a choice of Monorail and both Putra LRT and Star LRT.

The location is unmistakably fantastic. But its one of those ‘either you love it or you hate it’ things, even the developers acknowledge that much. If you’re looking for a high grade investment or place to stay in the area, then this is as good as it gets. But if you’re not inclined to the Golden Triangle, no amount of freebies or savvy sales talk will convince you. Its that plain and simple. But with the location, facilities and connectivity, it comes with a hefty price tag. The rate of RM1,000psf is even higher than most of the luxury condos in KLCC, probably on par with the super-prestigious The Binjai. But we’re tempted to think the eye-popping price is justifiable, if you take all into consideration (yes, including the infamous traffic crawl). But as we said, it’s really, really not for everyone. If you’re a foreigner looking for the most expensive condo to invest in, and with 3 to 4 million ringgit lying around in your kitchen, this might be your fancy. For the rest of us, we’ll probably just be shopping in the mall downstairs…

We think that the Pavilion will be THE landmark and business-cum-commercial heart of the city when the whole development is completed. Probably second only to the KLCC development. But probably just as (or even more) costly to own…