Property Malaysia

Property Malaysia would like to wish all our Malaysian readers a wonderful National Day. This Thursday, 31 August, marks the 49th anniversary of our glorious independence.

(pic from wkipedia)

As with last year, we are taking the opportunity to take a few days off over the long weekend to spend some time away from all things property, but rest assured we will back in a big way next week.

“Selamat Hari Merdeka!”

Now beverage bottler F&N wants to become a niche property developer. The property arm of the company which owns tracts of prime land in several states including the Klang Valley, prefer the niche market as compared to being a mass market developer.

Their first preference is to unlock the value of their land in Petaling Jaya and Sabah.

According to a report:

“F&N… which has a total of 40.5 ha of factory land in seven states is still a food and beverage company, as the size of the landbank is too small for it to be considered a property developer.
Aside from the development of the 8.1 ha ZON.e along Jalan Sungai Besi in Kuala Lumpur, Cheah said the company has two other commercial development projects in the pipeline in the Klang Valley and Johor Baru with a total gross development value of RM300 million.
However, unlike its other development projects, which involves the unlocking its landbank, F&N properties division acquired the land in Johor Baru for development.“

More and more companies are diversifying from their core business activities to enter the seemingly attractive and lucrative real estate business. But without a doubt, a company like F&N have financial strength and landbank to do it, and lack of experience will not be a big issue here. We think going for the niche market is the way forward, but at this stage, we will have to see their masterplan when it is ready.

Watch this space for more news.

Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI) is quite a respectable area that has all the hallmarks of a good neighbourhood to live in. It’s a matured, low density (most old landed homes), vibrant commercial area that isn’t too imposing. Location wise, it’s very near Petaling Jaya and its upmarket suburbs like Kota Damansara, Damansara Uptown and SS2. And yet while it is still in KL (some developers are adamant that this greatly influences property prices) it is a quiet and peaceful area to stay or invest, and connected to the city centre (less than 10 minutes) and to major highways.

And while there is definitely no more place to build landed homes in this area (something which increases the allure of TTDI), there are still pockets of undeveloped land held over from since the early days of the development in the 70’s and early 80’s. One of the plots developed recently is the Residence by TTDI Development (which was completed recently) and the other one is Sinaran TTDI.

This condominium sited on commercial land is located at corner of the Tun Mohd Fuad area, next to the fire station along Jalan Damansara. On one side the condo is facing the old SS20 terrace houses. Entrance to the condo is from within the Tun Mohd Fuad area, so no worries about entering and exiting from the busy Jalan Damansara.

The 2.3acre site is commercial land, and there will be 30-storeys of units on top of 5 levels of parking floors. There are 10 to 12 units per floor, with units either facing Northeast or Southwest, Damansara Uptown or Bukit Kiara (we’d prefer the latter…). The units are on either side of the building only. 10 to 12 units per floor may sound a lot, but they’ve arranged it in such a way that there are 2 separate lift lobbies (3 lifts each) to use, so you’d be sharing the lifts and lobby are with only half the number of units.

There are over 10 types of units to choose from, they are either typical apartment style layout, or studio unit layout (but with a big build-up of about 1,500sq.ft onwards). The typical apartment units are bigger, larger than 1,000sq.ft. The smallest studio units start from 1,100sq.ft with two rooms, and the largest typical unit is at 2,400sq.ft with 4+1 rooms. Penthouses at 4,200sq.ft and 5,200sq.ft. are also available.

1 to 4 parking bays per unit, according to the size of your unit. Maintenance fee is currently set at RM0.28psf including sinking fund (please check with salespeople for latest info).

Sinaran TTDI is priced RM350psf on the average, which is pretty high compared to the nearby condos in Damansara Intan, Kota Damansara and SS2. However, this being TTDI, there are exclusively very few condos in the close vicinity, and even fewer to be built in the future due to the area being close to development maturity. For the extra price, you get a peaceful surrounding of older houses, good view of surrounding areas. For a lower price, in Damansara Intan or Kota Damansara, you have many high-rise condos in a small area, traffic problems, overdevelopment and competition for rental market.

In terms of facilities, we think the works are here, no less than what you be getting for a similar condo somewhere around here for this price. The features are the security, swimming pool, gym, BBQ area, shops, jacuzzi, etc.

We’re not particularly partial to serviced apartment, especially those that have studio units which are targeted towards the younger renters. But the location and exclusivity will attract its fair share of buyers and investors.

UDA was actively involved in the development of TTDI in the early days, but in the last few years they’ve been quiet in the Klang Valley. All this is about to change in the near future, they will also be developing another project in Bangsar and a few more in the pipeline.

There is a footnote in the brochure that says this: “Sinaran TTDI is not a housing development governed by the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act, 1966 as it has been approved for mixed development on commercial land. Therefore the schedule of payment of the purchase price differs from that required under the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Regulations, 1989“. Good that they give you forewarning. Anyway, they have attached the amended schedule, just to pre-empt any disputes from buyers.

We here at Property Malaysia read lots of books, about lots of topics that interest us. However, one thing to note is that there aren’t many books written by Malaysians specifically about property in Malaysia. There are probably quite a few reasons for that, but in recent years this has started to change, but still not too many as compared to the hundreds from the US or the UK.

We are not including law books (you can find a list here, also good for buyers to read).

We should have more books that focus on the property in Malaysia - a lot of what they teach in those foreign books can’t be applied here, unless its all theoritcal stuff which usually don’t interest people.

Anyway, if you guys want to recommend any good books on property or business, feel free to comment. We’re all ears.

(We actually have a section called ‘Books That We Recommend‘, you can see it if you click on the tab above the date of the latest post. Incidentally, they’re all American books, and not restricted to property only…)

Property developer Plenitude was featured in the business papers today, after announcing their cumulative full-year net profit of RM52.4mil on Friday. The report highlighted that three main projects that will drive the company’s earnings forward are Taman Desa Tebrau in Johor Baru, Taman Putra Prima in Puchong and Batu Feringghi in Penang.

Taman Putra Prima was reviewed here recently (you can read it here). Another of their earlier project is Changkat View Condominiums in Sri Hartamas.

According to the report:

Plenitude’s decision to defer some launchings of its properties, especially Taman Desa Tebrau and Taman Putra Prima due to budget constraints, was also a very strategic one which would support the performance of the group in the longer term, OSK said in a report released yesterday.

According to the research house, Plenitude is deferring the launch of Taman Desa Tebrau to capture even larger benefits from the fast-rising property values, and Taman Putra Prima due to budgetary re-planning and to refocus on selling its unsold units first.

Plenitude also own and run the Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel in Penang.

The government has decided to let the people be the ‘eyes and the ears’ of the authorities in reporting contractors that abandon projects or hand over shoddy work. According to a report in leading papers today:

Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said this would be part of a code of ethics and a performance-appraisal system for contractors likely to be implemented next year.

He said it was aimed at preventing abuse of government projects.

The public could contact the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB) if they felt things were amiss with any government construction project.

The code, drawn up by contractor associations and government departments, requires contractors to finish their job on time and according to specifications.

Contractors will also have to sit for integrity courses.

This plan covers public projects only by the government, the more pressing issue for us is, is the government planning to enact anything to cover private home buyers in the future? There are plenty of these abandoned projects and poorly constructed homes around for everyone to see, maybe this is something to look into urgently.

Anyway, in an accompanying article, the article listed down the problematic projects under the 8th Malaysia Plan.

More than 2,000 projects abandoned under 8th Plan

A TOTAL of 2,326 abandoned projects under the Eighth Malaysia Plan has been brought forward to the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

• The RM165 million Kuching Prison remains unfinished after almost 10 years. Designed to ease congestion at the present 113-year- old Kuching Prison, the contract was awarded to WMM Holdings Sdn Bhd in 1997. It was to have been built by 2000. When the firm failed to meet the deadline, it was granted an extension till May 2001. When this passed, its services were terminated in July 2002. The Public Works Department, which took over, awarded the project to TSR Bina Sdn Bhd in September 2004. Work resumed in January last year. The company is to complete it by end of the year for RM54.7 million, but it appears that it may only be ready next year.

• After five extensions, the RM565 million Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah in Alor Star is almost ready and it is expected to be handed over to the Health Ministry after five postponements starting in 2002.

• The new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex in Johor is delayed by another five months.
Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the RM1.3 billion project, slated for completion next month, will be ready in February.

• The problem-riddled Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2) reopened to light traffic this month after cracks were spotted along the pillars in 2004. The cost of repairs is expected to exceed RM40 million. The MRR2 was closed the first time for three months from Aug 8, 2004, and reopened last November.

The decision to close the stretch for a second time came after a study by independent consultant Halcrow Group Limited of Britain found cracks along 31 of the 33 pillars.

• Construction of the Matrade building, which began in 1997, was only completed recently. The project’s original cost of RM167 million ballooned to RM287.5 million, with RM64.8 million spent on fixing shoddy work.

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.

We got this in our mailbox (in our PC, not the real mailbox outside the gate) last week, we’re curious how it came to us. We’re assuming he/she wrote this to his developer and sent a copy to us. And hopefully he didn’t mistake us for his developer, or KPKT for that matter…

Anyway, i hope the person doesn’t mind us putting it up here for our Ask & Answer column for the benefit of other buyers. Cheers!

XX to me (name withheld. Usual reasons, lah)
10-Aug (5 days ago)

Dear Sir,

I’m really puzzled how can most people just happily get their new house keys from the developer and start gathering family members to spring wash their new house???

When approached, developer always say they have no one to spaer to clean the house. Isn’t there any article somewhere somehow indicating that a house must be surrender to the buyer in clean and perfect condition? Imagine buying a new car and you get it in sparkling show room condition. And buying a house but got in urrh..no words to describe the mess in the new house…Cant we demand it to be delivered in show room condition???

Where can we poor people channel our sorrow?? after spending quarter million to buy a house that comes free with 1 ton of building waste…

Dissapointed

Our Response:

Well, the best place to look is in your S&P document if there is any clause to say they must hand over the house in a clean state. But we can bet you that 9.9 out of 10 developers will NOT put such a clause in the S&P. Why? Well, there are a few problems. How clean is clean? Of course, following due reasoning, the developer cannot expend $$$ to make sure everything is super spick and span, since new housing area is bound to be very dusty. Anyway, if they put a clause to impress buyers, they’ll be afraid that buyers will ‘take advantage’ if it and make them clean everything right down to sterile conditions. (More $$$). So you see why they don’t usually do that. Most of the time the developer will think “Aiyah, the buyer will clean anyway, so why bother to clean so much? They won’t move in immediately, then the house will be dusty again…”

But then, buyers must fight for their rights. Or at least good after sales customer service. Here’s what you should do:

1. Put it in the defects list.
2. Take lots of photos.
3. Make an appointment with the developer’s supervisor to come and inspect the handed over house. Make sure he signs receipt of defects list. Keep a copy (should they accidentally ‘lose’ the form)
4. Get a commitment from them as to when it can be rectified (the period is usually stated in the S&P).

If the above still does not get thing done, you need to move into Phase 2.

1. Write letter to developer to complaint. Attach all documents - photos, defects list, and notes of all inspection times and dates.
2. Send photos to papers, with complaint letter so that everyone hears about it.
3. Copy letter to KPKT.
4. For more drastic action - call the press. I hear this particular TV station is always very keen on all these issues.

Okay, fine, the above is a little drastic, but what else can a buyer do? There’s one thing a developer is afraid of is - BAD PUBLICITY. Well, MOST developers lah. Some will think - “Project finish already, i got my profit, can close HDA account, why should i worry? I’m not spending XXX to clean your house!”

Having said that, most developers usually hand over the house in a reasonably clean state, but even so, you still need to clean the house again.We’ve come across a developer that will offer free professional cleaner service once after VP to the buyer, the buyer must appoint the date for them to come. Good idea.

Don’t forget, guys, the 2nd INTERNATIONAL HOMEBUYER 06 & INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY INVESTOR 06 will be held this weekend, 18-20th August 2006 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Hall 4 & 5. Entrance is free, and opening times are from 10am to 7pm daily.

For more info, you can check out our earlier post here, or you can visit the organizer’s website.

(That’s the Convention Centre below, if you’re wondering…)

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

As we mentioned in the recently reviewed Taman Puchong Prima, this area has seen many new projects sprout out from the east side of the LDP (Damansara Puchong Expressway) to the NVKE (North Klang Valley Expressway). Some of these are in Puchong, some are in Sepang, but as a whole all of them are usually perceived to be part of the more developed Puchong.

To get to Putra Prima, you need to turn right at the Puchong Utama LDP interchange, then at the third traffic lights, turn right and go all the way to the end of the road and you‘ll see the development on your left. As a general rule the area on the right of the dual carriageway is part of MPSJ (hence, Puchong) and on your left would be Sepang. Along the way on the right, you’ll see projects like Tasik PrimaPuchong Tekali and the mature Puchong Utama township. On the right you’ll Taman Putra Impiana and a lot of empty land. Beyond that area projects like Puchong Prima, Bandar Bukit Puchong 2, Meranti Jaya, Bandar Nusaputra (reviews here, here and here) and the older Amanputra and Putra Perdana.

Taman Putra Prima is actually at the end of the road, but beyond there you can see the existing light industrial area. We have seen this place many years ago, at the time when the road was a dirt track and the earliest projects had just begun. It’s far to go in (but not as far as Nusaputra…), but on the other hand it lends an air of seclusion and bustle-free.

Putra Prima is actually is large integrated township – 451-acres, however it is only in the first few years of execution. There is a master plan with schools, industrial areas, office blocks, a 7-acre park, and lots of homes. At the moment, there are a few phases of linkhomes handed over some years ago. Recently, a few rows of shoplots have also been built, where the current Putra Prima sales office is located. The developer has chosen to use small roundabouts in place of junctions, we’ve seen quite a few residents take a shorter route against the flow of traffic.

The earlier phases of Putra Prima has reasonably finish quality, although one of the more common complaint was the odd architectural touches – some units had a small enclosed airwell / mini-courtyard right in the middle of the living room. But on the whole, the homes were quite nice and well-received. The developer also took the initiative to get feedback from existing buyers to make newer phases better, something a lot of other developers could do well to follow.

So we come to phase 4A which was launched earlier this year, which includes 220 of 22’ x 75’ linkhomes, equally divided into 2 designs called Beryl and Ivory. Actually both designs are the same, save for some slight façade touches.

In terms of internal layout and plot sizing, we think the developer has got a lot of things right by listening to feedback. What we liked – the car porch large enough for 2 cars, fewer weird architectural nooks and crannies. On the other hand – somehow the build up is small (1,930 to 2110sq.ft) for a 22’ x 75’ plot size. Also the wet kitchen is very small, we would have preferred it to be integrated with the dry kitchen (but here they call it as ‘meal area’. Eh?)

One major concern we had about the show unit (which is an actual unit on site) was the quality of the finishing. Some people may say that being a show unit rushed as just a sample for public viewing, but we see it differently. A show unit should show the best of what your unit should look like, and act as a benchmark for the rest of the units to be built. The tiling was unsatisfactory, with discoloured and unsightly gap plastering. There were a few other issues on the workmanship, but lets hope the other units will be better when they are handed over.

One thing going for it is that it’s cheap for a freehold property in a medium-ly dense development, starting from RM260k. It’s far from anywhere, a unit like this in, say Bandar Puteri would cost RM100k more.

These days, with more and more people moving in to the area, traffic going in and out to the LDP at peak hours is getting more and more critical. There is a planned exit out to NKVE near Bandar Nusaputra, however, there is no news as to when this will happen.

Plenitude has quite a few projects across the country, the most visible being Changkat View. They have also a hotel in Penang.