Property Malaysia

Taman Tasik Prima was launched some 3 years back offering some linkhomes, bungalows and semi-D units, along with apartments. Now these units are almost ready for handover (Lake View and Lake Haven) and the developers are launching the last phase of 2 and a half storey linkhomes called Vista 1 and Vista in the Lake Visa series.

But before that, something about the development. It sits on ex-mining land next to the disused lake. Across the other side, it’s the same lake where Desa Millennia is located. And it’s leasehold. If you can accept these two factors, then read on.

To get to Taman Tasik Prima, you need to turn off at the Puchong Utama interchange of the LDP, then turn left on the dual carriageway that leads to the many new developments like Impiana Puchong, Tekali Puchong, and Puchong Prima. You can see the entrance from the main road, with the decorative masts with huge seashells and starfishes motifs (why? This is a mining lake, and the nearest beach is like 100 miles away…)

The bulk of the 354-acre land is taken up by the great lake (43% of the entire parcel). The last parcel which they are opening for booking now is located near the entrance from the main road. Surrounding this last phase is land earmarked for low-cost apartments, a playground, and few commercial lots yet to be developed. There is also a small town centre as part of the overall development soon to be built nearby.

Out of the 300 plus units in this last phase, they are opening up 4 rows (123 units for booking). There are two types of units for sale, both similar except one is 18’ x 65’ and the other is 2’ wider at 20’ x 65’. Yes, the lot size is small. And they make up for it with an extra floor to make it 2 ½ storey. The build-up 2,046 and 2,283sq.ft respectively. We don’t like 2 ½ storey link homes especially if it has a small footprint, it makes the row of houses look thin and imposingly high. We would have preferred if the developer opted for a larger plot size (at least 20’ x 70’) without the extra floor. You will end up with lesser units overall, but you can sell it at a higher price but may attract a wider spectrum of buyers. But that’s just our opinion…

Because of the tight space, ground floor has only the living, one guest room and dry kitchen, no wet kitchen or yard (okay, a lot of big families may have problems with this already). First floor, there is a master and bedroom 2 with attached bath. At the very top, there are two small rooms and one bath. No family room. The salesperson said that you could extend the half floor at the top to make it a full floor, but we can’t really see how that’s going to happen without eliminating the bathroom. So, renovations to extend the kitchen at the ground floor (like every other Malaysian family…) and renovations at the top floor? (You can almost hear all those renovation contractors going ‘Ka-ching, ka-ching!!”). Plus, the units will end up looking a whole lot like townhouses or lowrise flats…

Price isn’t cheap. Starts at RM280k but the developer is offering a substantial discount. Check with them. The white sand from the mining lake made it extremely hot during daytime. More so than usual.

Bottomline - on the downside, it’s ex-mining land, something we’d really avoid especially if there are so many other alternatives around this place. Also, leasehold. Traffic coming out to LDP is getting heavier by the week. It’s the last phase, so it’s priced on the high side. On the upside, ummm…

Bolton has been in the industry for some time. Some other projects they have are Lavender Heights, Tijani I & II, Taman Midah, D’Mayang Condo.

SP Setia has long held a parcel of land near Ulu Kelang / Ampang with the intention of launching an exclusive luxury landed project.

The other day, while driving on the MRR2, we saw a huge billboard promoting the project, but there was not much details as the launch seem to be quite sometime away. For those who are unfamiliar with Setia Hills, it is in Ampang, Selangor, and is a development comprising 43 bungalows on a 150-acre hillside plot.

According to our sources in the company, they say that the view from the site is awesome, especially in the evening (maybe better than The Peak at Taman TAR?) and is situated on solid rock. And what we heard is that the price will not anywhere near affordable, probably the bosses and friends will be owning them…

According to their website, some of the bungalows are detailed as follows:

Setiahills present 10 majestic home designs each offering 4,987 sq.ft to 7,893 sq.ft of living spaces.

Spread over 14.92 acres of greenhills in Ampang and only 45 units of 5,800 sq.ft to 30,190 sq.ft lot sizes, a suburban oasis of this scale in the city and with this exclusive density is a rare gem.

You can check out our developer profile on SP Setia, or call them at 03 - 5882 2000.

The Edge gave out their Top Property Developers Awards on July 19 last week. The ten winners are

• Bandar Raya Developments Bhd
• IGB Corp Bhd
• IOI Properties Bhd
• Island & Peninsular Bhd
• MK Land Holdings Bhd
• SP Setia Bhd
• Sime UEP Properties Bhd
• Sunrise Bhd
• Sunway City Bhd
• YTL Land & Development Bhd.

We will do a complete write-up of the Overall Top 30 developers, Qualitative Top 30 and Quantitative Top 30 soon. The Awards rank the best property players in Malaysia — from the consumer’s perspective — for both quantitative and qualitative attributes.

This is the fourth year the weekly has ranked Malaysian property developers. In the 2005 edition, there were no changes to the top ten developers from the previous year (2004), but the rankings were slightly different. This year, the only new entry into the top ten is YTL Land & Development replacing Boustead Properties Bhd.

For those of you who are looking for a good property expo, we would suggest you try to attend this one:

2nd INTERNATIONAL HOMEBUYER 06 & INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY INVESTOR 06
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Hall 4 & 5 (picture shown below).
Date: 18, 19 & 20 August 2006 (Fri, Sat & Sun)
Time: 10am - 7pm Daily

We attended the last one held in the same venue, (you can check out of write-up on it here). Homebuyer is more targeted towards upmarket and niche homes, and from last year’s list of participants, most of the best developers and products will be on show. After a few lacklustre other property fairs (ahem) recently, this is one to block out your diary for.

Excerpt taken from their website:

2nd INTERNATIONAL HOMEBUYER 06 will bring together the best names in niche and upmarket Malaysian developments and offer a wide range of property, from serviced apartments in the heart of the city to resort homes. It gathers properties locating in Peninsular and East Malaysia. It offers you a ONE-STOP centre to search into the latest trend of Malaysian lifestyle in homes and property choices.

Sharing the same exhibition hall is the INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY INVESTOR 06 offering an International Property Pavilion featuring realtors, builders, land bankers, developers from countries outside of Malaysia. It will offer a choice selection of property and investment opportunities from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Thailand and Dubai making this dual exhibitions a must for anyone looking to make a serious purchase investment.

If you wish to know where the upcoming investment interest is, you certainly should make a trip to this exhibition. Valuable information are brought to you at INTERNATIONAL HOMEBUYER & INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY INVESTOR 06

This event is brought to you by Tourism Malaysia, The Edge and many other partners.

The news last week for REIT watchers was that the Securities Commission (SC) issued a guidance note to allow REITs to borrow up to 50% of their total asset value. Previously, they were only able to borrow up to 35%.

The Edge, has predicted that this will have trickle down effect to investors in the form of higher yields (see their report on July 17, 2006). The also noted that the government implemented this after receiving feedback from industry players. The also recorded some optimism that this news might help boost the price of the REITs currently. This however, may only happen if the cost of debt is remains lower than the cost of equity.

We have always lamented on the few number of REITs available in the market currently since the launch of this instrument so long ago, resulting in their effectiveness to make an impact in the Malaysian investing environment.

Currently, there are only 4 available REITs – Axis, Starhill, UOA and Tower. Of these, only Axis is trading reasonably above its listing price. In the case of Starhill, despite all the earnest marketing and promotions by YTL, it still remains sluggish. Axis, too have been aggressive, adding 4 more properties to their assets in the last 11 months (see our report here) and growing their listing from RM290million to RM400million. Actually all the four companies are constantly looking for more property injection (including Ritz-Carlton Residences for Starhill), and the higher gearing due to borrowings should be able to help quite a bit.

Interestingly enough, at 50%, the gearing level brings Malaysia in line to its regional peers. Singapore, previously also at 35%, increased it to 60% recently (with a credit rating).

So will there be better days for our paltry REITs? Let’s wait and see.

For more articles on REITs in Property Malaysia:
Tower REIT Opens At RM1.06
News on Tower REITs and Axis-REIT
Malaysia Real Estate Industry Hits RM56 billion
Tower REIT Looking For More Office Buildings
Starhill REIT Makes Good Debut
UOA Offers REITs Today
Axis REIT to Buy Two More PJ Properties
YTL launches Starhill REIT
Budget Boost for Malaysian REITs
About Malaysian REITs

We’re always on the lookout for other property blogs around the world. Recently, we found another one called MyCity Real Estate Blog (‘real estate’ being the more common American term for ‘properties’).

This American blog seemed to have started in Oct 2005, and averages about 2 posts a month, although the number of posts have picked up in recent months. They seem to concentrate on broad-reaching investment topics rather than specialized interests.

Hopefully they can post more often.

Anyways, we hope readers can suggest other property related websites (local or international) to us.

Building and selling houses is a difficult and challenging business, any developer can tell you that, whether they are big or small. Most buyers and members of the public only see the friendly side of things – the polite salespeople, the IKEA-furnished show units, the snazzy advertisements and brochures everywhere.

But the process of acquiring land, getting the approvals and permits (the holding cost of this step alone has bankrupted many a developers), dealing with neighbouring landowners and residents, administrating the contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, and pressure from management and buyers – all in all, so complex that one mistake can result in millions lost.

My friend works as a contractor, he told me this tale of a mid-sized developer’s semi-D project somewhere in the Klang Valley. The job itself isn’t hard, but it had it’s fair share of problems behind the scenes. According to my friend, this project had just been handed over to buyers in its proper time, and mostly everyone is happy and the developer looks to made a decent profit.

But this 4-year project (right from the land acquisition) went through 5 project managers under the employment of the developer. The first one was made to resign the lengthy period of getting all the approvals to start work on site. Apparently, the management was disappointed in the delays to launch the project.

So stepped in second guy. Under tremendous pressure on the earthworks and the milestone dates, he was transferred out immediately after the first launch. He barely lasted a few months, although nobody knows why he was repositioned.

Enter project manager #3 and #4. These two guy lasted an impressive year and a half between them. But both, too resigned.

Then the fifth and last guy finished the project, but the word on the street is that the management is royally unhappy with his style and no ones knows where he will go after this.

This is not to mention the main contractor changing 3 project managers in the same time.

Like I said, property development is a difficult business.

Property Malaysia just celebrated our first anniversary last week, we’re writing a series of articles to commemorate the event.

Let’s talk a bit about new property launches, which are practically a weekly event in the Klang Valley, throughout the year. And specifically, the people who attend the property launches.

A good new property launch, if marketed well enough, will definitely attract a good crowd, depending on some other factors, like the developer’s reputation, and whether the launch weekend doesn’t clash with some major event like the MATTA Fair. We’ve been to a lot of property launches (actually, ‘too many’ would be a better description), and other than assessing the product on sale, we also like to observe the two types of people involved in the event – the prospective clients (and that would actually include the non-prospective ones) and the salespeople trying to close the deal.

A lot of people attend these launches for a lot of different reasons – some to buy, some with no intention at all, but everyone has a right to come in (except if its one of those members-only previews).

A big crowd gives an excellent ‘crowd effect’, and attracts passers-by, who in turn spread the word by mouth. But a big crowd is difficult to handle, the sales people will not have enough time or people to attend to every interested visitor. Unless those visitors came specifically for the food or the door gift…

Speaking of food, it has become somewhat of a norm to have catered food for these events, the higher the quality the better. The usual ‘satay party’ or ‘free mooncake’ is old-fashion now, developers are providing 5-star hotel caterers or the likes of Strudels or Delifrance…

But at the end of the day, it’s the product and pricing that ultimately draws the people to buy, marketing can only help the sales go faster. But a good housing development that is poorly marketed will lose out on many potential buyers who didn’t get to hear about the project, or were put off by the less than professional salesfolks…

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…

Sentul is an area which carries different connotations to different people. Many people see it as an old lower-middle class area of KL, a town built around the old KTM station, staff quarters and a Little India enclave. For those unfamiliar with this place, Sentul is a charming place, bordered by the Pekeliling flats along Jalan Tun Razak on one side (with the landmark Dynasty Hotel), Segambut on the other side, and Setapak on the other end. Further on Jalan Sentul will bring you to Batu Caves area.

Today Sentul is more known for its traffic jams, the historic Tamil Methodist Church, and rows of old shophouses, and old KTM quarters. So it would come to be quite a surprise for someone to come across Sentul East and West by the mega-corporation YTL right in the middle of this area.

YTL has acquired a huge piece of 291acre land comprising of many parcels here, surrounding the old Sentul train station, workshop, and the other pieces of prime land around it. YTL, owned by the Yeoh family, one of the richest families in Malaysia. The conglomerate has come out with an impressive master layout plan for this entire development, with a lot of facilities and wide green spaces, parks, lakes, and architectural touches that really sets this place apart from any other project we can think of.

A review like cannot cover the entire Sentul West and East, when this place is more developed we will try to do a development review for the whole project (as what we did for Bandar Puteri and Bandar Kinrara). At the moment, a lot of parcels are marked as future development. Aside from that there is the KL Performing Arts Centre (KLPac, re-built from an old facing brick building), the sprawling Sentul Park (which was previously a golf course), with the water course and the Koi Centre.

This is the third major residential launch in the Sentul East and West massive development. First there was the Tamarind, which is located next to this Saffron in Sentul East. Tamarind is already completed, and you can see the two towers as you drive along Jalan Sentul. There are only a handful of units left over from this project. The second one is the more luxurious Maple, (sales about 85% at the time of viewing) this one is located at Sentul West, right next to the one acre Sentul Park. They will be handing over the keys to the purchasers in the next month or two.

The Saffron is 4 towers of 17 and 24 storey condominiums, all either 3+1 or 4+1.

In terms of facilities, there is not much to shout about, only the usual fare. But they have this geometrically inspired playground and 3 different well-designed pools for everyone. The 30-acre Sentul Park in the West side is an enclosed area only of residents. Block A & C have 8 units per floor, while B has 6 and D has an exclusive 3. Units range from 1,000sq.ft to 1,873sq.ft. What we can see is that they’ve limited the size of the units to a smaller range, presumably to keep the pricing affordable. With that in mind, they are also providing the units with bare finishes (not even airconditioning provided, but the pipings are there). The pricing starts from RM240psf, which works out to be about RM260k onwards. This pricing structure makes it accessible for the young urban set, and also competitive enough to attract the investors.

There is a small park next to the Saffron specially for the residents, something not provided for Tamarind.

The units are pretty nicely laid out, the general feel of it is simplistic, rectangularish, with tall windows, similar to the what you see at Lake Edge.

Units get one parking spot, larger ones get max of two, RM16k for an additional parking spot. RM0.25psf maintenance fee.

For accessibility, there is the Sentul KTM Komuter Station right in the middle of it, the Sentul LRT Station within walking distance, and the proposed Sentul Link under construction. KLCC is just less than 10 minutes away (normal traffic) and major highways are all around.

To be frank with you, we sort of fell in love with this place. From the entrance and the colonial style old buildings used by the developer, to the wide green spaces all around, the ambience grabs your attention immediately. But of course, the unit sizes could have been bigger, and if they had thrown in some freebies like cabinets or better finishes, it would have been much better. But for this price, there are many good things going for it – freehold, facilities, thoughtful planning. Some people have aversion to Sentul, so for them other development may look more attractive. In our opinion, YTL has done a great job to transform this area into what it is now. YTL (and its bosses) has their fair share of detractors, but personally we feel and the company certainly has what it takes make a huge project like this successful. According to them, they envision it to be the ‘SOHO of Malaysia’.

YTL has numerous other projects all over the Klang Valley, like the Bintang Walk, Lake Edge in Puchong, Pantai Hillpark and Lakefields in Sungai Besi.

The Saffron, just like the Tamarind, is named after the commonly used spice. It’s from the purple crocus flower, and the spice names are a reflection of the numerous old spice shops in the Sentul town.

YTL Land and Development was formerly Taiping Consolidation, and Sentul East West was previously known as Sentul Raya. It was stalled a few times since the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. When the project was initially launched in 1995, it was estimated to be worth RM1.3billion. Recently the management has noted that it is now about RM6billion. When the entire development is completed in 8 years time, it is estimated to be home to 50,000 residents in 7,000 homes (although these estimates seem to differ from various reports).