Property Malaysia

First there was Casa Indah 1. That sold pretty well. Now there’s Casa Indah 2 just next door. Well, as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But actually they did fix some of the shortcomings of the first one, so what we have here is a slightly better version, maybe at a slightly different price.

This is Kota Damansara, folks. The land of gold and prosperity for investors and retailers. Whether it still is, well that is debatable, but for retailers and the early bird landlords, there’s a lot of money to be made. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

A lot can be said about the location and surrounding areas, and we have touched on before (at length), so we won’t repeat ourselves here. It’s located between Opal Damansara and Cova Villa, so you can read our take on the infrastructure, accessibility and traffic around the area. Especially on Opal Damansara. Go on, read it, we’re not kidding around.

Casa Indah 1 and 2 are part of the larger development known as Damansara Indah Resort Homes, which is surrounded by Persiaran Surian (the main thoroughfare of Kota Damansara), the NKVE, The Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia and Tropicana Golf & Country Resort. Across the road on the West you can find Selangor Science Park and a couple of colleges. Directly opposite Casa Indah 2 is Jelutong Park. Within the Damansara Indah development there is also the Seri Selangor Golf Club.

Damansara Indah is a fairly large upscale development, now nearly completion of the masterplan implementation. Before this, they successfully launched a few phases of landed units. Casa Indah 1 & 2 are the only apartments in this development, and they are separated from the rest by a river, Sg. Rumput.

Casa Indah 2 itself isn’t a small development. There are 391 units in all here, but hey, what’s another few hundred cars flooding Kota Damansara’s roads, there are already so many condos around here. Not to mention the landed units and commercial areas. OK, seriously. There are two identical towers, A and B both about 20 storeys high. In addition to that, there are 2 more blocks of lowrise units set to be launched soon, these are about 5 storeys high, starting from ground up, with a view of the RRIM reserve and golf course. This is different from the two high towers, they start after a few levels of carpark. Apparently, they changed this from the earlier Casa Indah 1 as buyers complained that the lowrise units obstructed the view of the lower floors of highrise.

Only one of the towers are open for sale at the moment. The units have are either ‘Golf course view‘ or ‘Park view‘ (facing the existing houses on the other side). What park view, we asked. ‘Oh, its just a name‘, said salesperson. Interesting. There are 8 units per floor (per block), and there is one end unit with 3 sides of view. For block A, this might be a good unit, but for block B, it’ll be completely at the mercy of the setting sun.

There are 4 typical units available, ranging from 1,160 to 1,519sq.ft. All of them are 2+1 rooms. But all units have a study area which can be converted into a spare room. Type C at 1,422sq.ft has an additional family area which can be converted into yet another room, which, if an someone who wants to rent out to students, will actually do it. Most of the types come with this small balcony the size of a single bed. Most people will just use as a broom, mop and pail storage space. To the full view from the main road. Or area for air-conditioner condenser. Or a smoking area for the fully air conditioned. Okay, okay, we’ll stop.

We can say that the units are quite well spaced, with large enough kitchens to cater for big families. The decision to keep them at 2+1 rooms has allowed a large masterbedroom, which will please a lot of potential buyers.

In terms of facilities, there is the usual offering of swimming pool, security, observation deck, hall, shops, etc. But we would think these facilities would complement the myriad of shopping and recreational facilities available around this area, so therefore there isn’t really a need to go over the top with them.

Price starts at RM280psf, which is roughly what the competition is at. So what to make it stand out from the rest? Well, probably the view, and how bad the jam is here, compared to one kilometer away. And they’ll probably score some points with experience compared to, say, another developer who’s a first timer. Also, with Casa 1 under construction, people can see the quality they can expect for their unit. So actually that can go both ways. What we liked what the overall masterplan, at least if you buy the ‘golf course view’ unit, you’ll get a nice view of luxury homes, greenery and water. And flying golf balls.

At the moment, the developer Dijaya Corp is going big guns with projects like Tropicana City, Casa Suites and Casa Kiara.