Property Malaysia

November was a good month for reviews, with 6 reviews done. We have a few in queue to be published, but we’ll be carrying them forward to December. Meanwhile, we’ve updated the reviews page here.

The projects reviewed in November were:

The Tropics Designer Suites @ Tropicana City, Petaling Jaya
Ukay Bayu and Puncak Ukay, Ukay Heights
One Menerung, Bangsar
Saville Residence, Old Klang Road
Monte Bayu, Cheras
Kinrara Mas Garden Homes and Apartment, Bukit Jalil

Warninig, post with lots of pics ahead, dial-up users be forewarned.

We dropped by Alam Sutera the other day, we decided to re-visit the place after more than a year.

Below: These are the terrace units.

Below: Some of the semi-D units. Finishing quality on the exterior looks okay.

Below: A slightly different design of the semi-D facade. We like this one better.

Below: The greenery beside Alam Sutera facing the houses. Hope it stays that way.

Below: The view from Alam Sutera. Nice. In the foreground is actually the construction access used by the contractors, so as not to dirty or damage the completed premix.

The Mega Malaysia Property Showcase will be held at the PWTC again this year. This should be the last national level property exhibition for the year, and there are some pretty new projects that will be participating.

Details are as follows:

Mega Malaysia Property Showcase
Location PWTC, Kuala Lumpur
Date 1/12/2006 - 3/12/2006 (Friday to Sunday).

Entrance is free.

In conjunction with that, HBA is organizing a seminar that will interest a lot of parties:

Title: Strata Titles Act Seminar
Date: Friday, 01 December 2006
Time 2.30 pm – 6.00pm.
Venue: Putra World Trade Center (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur
Price: RM100 per person (payable in advance)
Language: English
Who should attend: Apartment/Condo Owners; Nominees of
Owners’ Committees / Associations; Managing Agents; Housing Developer; Bankers; Lawyers & Interested Parties.

For more info, visit their website here.

This project was recently launched at their show unit in neighbouring Damansara Intan. Tropicana City is nothing to do with the well known Tropicana Golf and Country Resort, although both are by the same developer Dijaya.

Tropicana City is a shopping centre that has been left incomplete since the piling works for the past few years, most PJ residents would be familiar with the large tract of land left excavated with the pilecap rebar sticking out, at the corner of SS2, Damansara Kim, Damansara Jaya and Damansara Utama.

In the intervening years, Dijaya concentrated on other projects like the aforementioned Tropicana Golf & Country Resort, Damansara Indah Resort Homes, Casa Indah, Damansara Intan e-Business Park (incorporating the exclusive Casa Suites) and Casa Damansara 1 & 2 (apparently Casa 3 is launching soon).

Now, Dijaya are turning their attention to recommencing the Tropicana City project. What they have here is a large 4-storey shopping centre (with Carrefour apparently signed on as the anchor tenant), and there will be a block of 24-storey serviced apartment. In future there are plans to have an office tower, too. The serviced apartment is christened The Tropics Designer Suites.

Tropicana City is well situated, right at the important junction between Sprint Highway and the LDP. It’s a centralized location for the affluent areas of Damansara Utama, Taman Tun, Section 17 and SS2. In SS2 itself, many citizens have always noted that there isn’t a landmark hypermarket to serve the people’s shopping needs all these years, just like what Carrefour (SS16) and Giant is to Subang Jaya. The relatively new Tesco in Mutiara Damansara is a little too far and can hardly be said to have an impact to SS2. The Giant in the Atria doesn’t count.

So with Tropicana City, a largely untapped retail market is promising, and also the convenient living for young, urban, mobile people looking for a place to live that provides lots of ready facilities at their doorstep, and isn’t too far for them to travel to work in the city. This area has largely seen a increase in newly launched condos to address this pressing need, evidently from the launches of Ken I, II and III, and the aforementioned Casa Damansara 1 and 2. But with the Tropicana City shopping centre, The Tropics offered something more that the others cannot match, i.e. the convenience of the mall. But as a trade-off, the condo is a serviced apartment, i.e. on commercial title. But as most folks tell you, you can’t have it all, so something’s got to give.

To capitalize on the location, the developer has 7 entry points and 6 exit points into the mall, located on all the surrounding roads, including the construction of a new flyover to Jalan Damansara Lama (according to them, costing RM15million), which will make travel to and from Kota Damansara and TTDI a breeze. You can see the impressive network in the diagram below.

There are actually 2 towers here, linked together, forming a symmetrical ‘V’ shape. There are 601 units here, in 24 levels of apartments, with a common podium of facilities at the rooftop of the mall, as with most developments similar to this. Each tower has a max of 14 units per floor, giving a total of 28. In terms of the view, since there is only two sides to the façade, they’ve named it Damansara View or Pool View.

There are 2 types of units – typical units and loft units. The typical units are single floor units ranging from a small 625sq.ft. to 730sq.ft. There’s not much to talk about on these units, they’re small, with only 2 bedrooms. Some types are rectangular in shape, while some have some portions of the house angled at 45 degrees, which is a little impractical.

The loft units are the same as the typical units, with the additional of half a floor of open room looking down onto the lower floor, similar to the unit found in Casa Suites. Here it’s either 2+1 rooms or 2+2. Sizes are from 1,040sq.ft to 1,176sq.ft. We don’t particularly like the open master bedroom concept, there’s no privacy at all, unless you stay alone, which defeats the purpose of providing more than 1 room. The loft units come with full glass windows giving a good view of the outside, depending on which view you have. Units are also rectangular or angled. If you ask us, we’d choose the rectangular ones any day.

They’ve managed to pack considerable facilities for residents here, notably the security (we were quite impressed with the system they used for Casa Damansara 1), a large 3-in-1 swimming pool, sports facilities, gym, sauna & steam room, concierge services, and shops especially for the residents.

Regular readers would know that we usually don’t fancy serviced apartments, especially ones above shopping malls (e.g. K Residence, The Axis Residences and Beverly Tower). Recently there has been quite a number of these launched all over Klang Valley, probably attesting to the broadening of the market. In terms of location, this has a huge plus factor, so for those who don’t mind the concept of serviced apartment, this would be a good choice. But the nearest LRT station is quite some distance away, so you should be expected to have your own transport. The units are tailored more towards single or dual occupancy, or couples at the most. As with Ken 2, we’d expect that this place would attract investors looking to rent out to yuppies, or parents buying a unit for their children’s stay with an eye to rent out or sell later.

Good location, but we don’t like the unit layout. Traffic may be a problem at peak hours when the mall opens. At the moment, it is already quite susceptible to horrendous jams.

Units aren’t cheap, averaging from RM300psf. to RM340psf, but a fair reflection of the above factors. Also, most project with high cost of infrastructure, (in this case the RM15million flyover and the holding cost of the land over the past few years), the cost is usually borne by the buyers, even if they don’t know it. But in this case, it would be less significant in the sense that it is spread between the tenants of Tropics, the office tower renters and the retailers in the mall.

Some of you might have notice this large hoarded up construction site in BK5 of Bandar Kinrara in Puchong. This large plot of land is surrounded by open spaces and is clearly visible from the Bukit Jalil Highway (or some people call it the Sungai Besi-Puchong Road).

The site will be a Giant hypermarket, evident from the project signboard and also after a check with their head office. Some of you might say, “Don’t they have another one in Puchong already, in Bandar Puteri?”.

Well, that one serves more of the Bandar Puteri area, and probably to compete with the popular Tesco, this one would probably draw its market from the huge untapped Kinrara and Bukit Jalil. At the moment, the nearest hypermarket in the area is Carrefour in Sri Petaling (Jusco in Puchong Jaya doesn’t count).

This should be good news to residents of Bandar Kinrara and projects such as Sierra Residency, Mutiara Bukit Jalil, Paragon Heights and Savanna.

Pilings works are in progress at the moment, according to the management, it should be ready by the end of next year.

Now this is a different development in Malaysia, probably the only one. Or at least the only one that is to this quality in terms of concept.

Let’s start from the very beginning. Long ago (in the 70’s) Selangor Properties owned two hilltop lowrise condominium development atop the hill at Ukay Heights, called Century Garden and Emerald Hill (we’re not particularly sure of the name, but it was very well-known back then). They mainly rented the units out, particularly to the expats working in the nearby International School. Then some time back they sold them to E&O and later, the current developer has relaunched the units under the marque of Maple Homes.

There are actually two separate plots of land near each other, but there is no connecting road. Both have separate access roads. Puncak Ukay is the smaller of the two, but situated on a higher elevation. Ukay Bayu will have a swimming pool and many more units to choose from. In this review, both will be regarded as one single development.

What they have essentially done was first strip everything off from the units right down to the bare structure – the flooring, wiring, sanitaryware, everything. Then they refurbished everything again with modern fittings and finishings, just like what you would expect in a brand new luxury condo in Mont’Kiara or Damansara Heights. They even added a lift to every block, and added modern features like sliding doors, full height windows and pretty cornices.

But they maintain some aspects of the façade, like the railings, pigeon holes, maintaining the look and feel of a house from that era, a sort of colonial-influenced Malaysian home.

Let us just say it here and now – we loved it. Absolutely loved it. We have a soft spot for heritage-styled buildings, and let us just tell you, the view from the unit is fabulous. The units in the higher Puncak Ukay face KLCC, whereas Ukay Bayu looks into the Klang Valley in other directions, like Ampang Jaya and Cheras. The project has maintained all the shady mature trees and original covered parking structures, giving the surroundings a cool, secluded feel. Other developments have to wait like 2 years for trees and landscaping to come anywhere near fully grown, this one has an unbeatable environment.

The road leading up to the development passes through all those old money bungalows dotting the hillside and greenery. Access is either from Jalan Ukay or the MRR2 (via Jalan Ampang). The development is surrounded by greenery and bungalow lots in Taman Hijau, Taman SA, etc – so you don’t have to worry about having your view blocked by anything, it’s already at the top of the hill where Ukay Heights in situated.

There are 8 blocks in Ukay Bayu and 3 in Puncak Ukay. All blocks have only two units per floor (designated left or right unit) and only 4 or 5 levels of unit, with the exception of Block 8 which has 5 levels. The penthouse units come with a roof terrace with garden, and the ground floor units come with the garden surrounding the block. It’s good for those people who fancy a patch of green, and don’t mind you neighbours above you looking down at you while you’re gardening. The lowest units don’t hae much of a view, though. Some blocks have the entrance at ground floor, but some are at mid-level, so in all there is a myriad of unit types for you to choose from.

The units are small, given that they were designed long ago before the age of obscenely large condos you see everywhere these days. Units are from 1,121 to 1,440sq.ft, with 2+1 bedrooms (penthouse from 1,523 to 2,052sq.ft). The exception is Block 7 & 8, where the units are 2,192sq.ft (penthouse 3,126sq.ft) with 3 rooms. Perhaps the developer could have combined some of the adjoining units to get one large unit per floor, but we think they resisted that idea to maintain the concept of the development. But apparently some of the buyers are doing that.

2+1 rooms and a modest build-up mean that it’s only suitable for very small families or couples, or renting out to these kinds of tenants. Apparently, the previous tenants of the place were mainly from the International School staying for many, many years, some of which are keen to come back once the refurbishment is completed to stay back here again. We can really understand why.

Puncak Ukay and Ukay Bayu is priced at RM400 to 450psf., which a unit is available for about RM500k. Sure in Mont’Kiara you can get a larger, spanking new unit for the same price (not to mention loads of nifty facilities too) but this place has something you can’t find anywhere else, that old world charm and architecture, a fantastic view, and a very low density populace (there are only 65 units in Ukay Bayu and 24 in Puncak Ukay).

Maintenance fee is 30sen for UB and 50sen for PU. There is a new guardhouse under construction, a refurbished swimming pool, landscaped gardens, playground and a BBQ area. Unit comes with 2 covered parking bays and the developer is throwing in some freebies like air-conditioning and heater.

Some units have small balcony (very nice for a morning cup of coffee while enjoying the sunrise view), some have a full height sliding door and railing, which we thought was a little dangerous…! One complaint is that for the price of a new unit, you’re getting an old structure (albeit with new fittings), so concrete creep and strain may be expected, but we expect the developers to have done touch up and strengthening works. Also, while the surrounding is mainly nice bungalows and older homes, the area immediately after the Ukay Heights zone is very different.

As we said, we were thrilled with the place. But we have to admit, it’s also not for everyone. It’s not overly expensive, and it has character. We also realize that small units are not ideal, and that from an investor’s point of view, it isn’t the best vehicle, so we guess it only for those who can afford it and appreciate it’s charm.

The brochures gives some excellent photos of the area’s surrounding, but looking at it and the floor plans don’t really do justice to seeing it for yourself.

We viewed this place quite some time back, but due to the queue of reviews to be published, we’re only doing so now. But any time would be a good time to review One Menerung, let us just sum it up to you right here in the first paragraph – this place is freaking awesome. If you’re the type to afford these types of properties. Nonetheless, if even if you’re minimum wage low salary blokes like us, it’s still nice to come and admire the architecture and ID of the place.

We were always of the opinion that Bangsar was almost fully developed, with the only lots available for new buildings were either the remaining green areas (not likely), very steep vacant land (not advisable) or redevelopment of existing bungalow lots (not big enough, unless you’re planning to turn it into a shop). But Bandar Raya Development (BRDB) have gotten their hands on a sizable 8 acre plot in a very good location. Heck, they even have another plot adjacent to it to built an impressive multi-storey show office / / sales office. And we mean very impressive. But anyway, about the development.

It’s a 8-acre plot of land behind Bangsar Shopping Centre, and another office block, on the corner of Jalan Senduk and Jalan Menerung (hence the name, if you’re wondering). Menerung is actually part of Bukit Bandaraya, an old neighbourhood of cosy semi-D units. But BRDB have clustered together a few pieces of vacant land, including one where once a sports complex was situated.

The entire development is actually shaped like an incomplete letter ‘S’, with one part of its end missing. It is obvious that the developers have really done their research and put a lot of thought into maximizing the use of the land in a top-drawer manner, not just making the most money, but making it as luxurious as possible, too. Generally, the land is surrounded by old bungalows and other landed units built in the 70’s and 80’s. The plot also curves around a green area designated as Federal reserve land, and also the HELP Institute hostel.

The strange thing here is that One Menerung shows the government green lung and the hostel in their brochures even though they don’t own it, and in these materials they don’t make it clear anywhere that its not part of their development (except when the salespeople are pitching it to you). If in the event that the Federal Government decides to built something on the reserve, or sell it to some other party, (although the likelihood of it is quite remote, but still possible) it would definitely affect this development.

In terms of access, there are two entry points, one via the aforementioned Jalan Senduk and another one out to the old Jalan Damansara, leading out to the Sprint Highway. Beyond that, we won’t delve so much into the connectivity with the other areas and highways. Bangsar is Bangsar, if you want to live there, you won’t be too concerned with connectivity or how long it takes you to get to Sg. Buloh or anything like that. Bangsar is close enough to KL and PJ, and is self contained as you can get, so there.

Let’s talk about the development itself. One Menerung is luxury with a capital L, giving the best in condo and lowrise living. There is no other place around the Klang Valley that quite matches One Menerung, with the exception of the KLCC condos. But let’s face it, how many of those over-hyped KLCC condos can boast of 8 acres of suburban space? All the units here are big, 3,000sq.ft and above, none of that few slightly cheaper smaller units that usually come with most luxury units to entice investors, or 600sq.ft studio units at the lower floors. No siree bob, all units here a big, and expensive.

There are 6 blocks of units with different characteristics, but still all part of the overall design concept, catering to different buyer needs. Following is a brief description of the blocks with the units, but we won’t go in so much into the internal layout:

Block A is a 28-storey highrise block, with 4 units per floor. There is a smaller block set a little away, called Block A annexe. Here there are only 6 floors with 2 units on each floor, giving a more exclusive (and of course pricier) choice to consider. Both towers share the same podium with 4 floors of basement parking. Unit sizes are from 3,013 to 5,671sq.ft. and cost between RM2.0million to RM2.7million. Block is facing Jalan Damansara and is nearest to the shared sports facilities and HELP Institute hostel outside. All the units here are 3+1, with the option of converting the family area into another large room.

Block B is a series of 14 multi-storey townhouses. The lower units are duplexes, with sizes ranging from 6,843 to 7,145sq.ft. Upper units are triplexes, which are similar to the lower units except with the addition of a full floor of roof terrace, at 6,036sq.ft. The build-up is smaller because they don’t take into account the roof terrace. Generally, the units in Block B are typified by a large dining, a double volume living, built-in Jacuzzi, 4+1 bedrooms, and at almost 7000sq.ft., there isn’t much more you can ask for. This block is facing the green area. Prices average at about RM3million.

Block C are is a tower of 21 floors of condos, with only two units per floor (4,385sq.ft), there are duplex penthouses at the top (7,661sq.ft). Block D is similar, but the units are only slightly bigger (5,221 and 10,291sq.ft. respectively). Single floor units go from about RM3.1million.

Block E & F houses 12 units of 3 and a half storey linkhomes units with an addition of roof terrace, giving a total of 5 levels to your house. Block E has units from 6,650 to 6,660sq.ft, and Block F is from 6,600 to 6,865sq.ft. One of these huge homes will set you back about RM4million.

Each block has their own set of facilities, usually on the ground floor of the building. There are also some common facilities for the entire development, which by themselves are quite luxurious to say the least.

There are altogether 229 units only (incidentally, so does Troika, another development by BRDB), which is quite low density since most of the land is taken by lowrise buildings. All the units are luxuriously finished, with no expense spared. The units, as we mentioned are all large, with fewer rooms than expected, giving more space to each living area. Large balconies, terraces and roof terraces are the order of the day.

One Menerung seem to have a cross-marketing deal with BSC, as the latter is used quite a bit as part of their marketing. It really helps One Menerung, as through the years, BSC still remains the iconic landmark of Bangsar, and still is fresh and vibrant with reinvention on the part of the management. BSC is also carrying out some extension works on the plot of land right behind them.

Each units comes with a minimum of 3 parking bays, larger units come with more. Maintenance fee is around 40-45 sen psf.

BRDB have been around for decades, with past projects like Bangsar Hill, Tivoli Villas and Sri Penaga. Currently, they are also working on CapSquare and Troika.

Four words to summarize One Menerung – Luxurious, impressive, location and exclusive. Enough said.

UPDATE JAN ‘07: For some site photos, check it out here.

The Heron was the first property we reviewed here in Property Malaysia back in July last year (you can read our review here), after one and a half years, they are now working on the 6th floor onwards of the superstructure.

The developers had some of the buyers worried as they kind of slowed down the works for a few months after the sub-structure was completed, but it looks like now they are in full swing.

Read the review of Heron Residency here).

We actually have a list of reviews lined up due to the accumulated backlog over the past 2 weeks, but we’re posting this one up first due to fact that the official launch was today. The soft launch has been going on for some time now, but there seem to be a lot of units available at the moment.

Saville Residence is a small serviced apartment located at a good location, at the junction of the Federal Highway and Old Klang Road (Jalan Klang Lama). Although some people can argue that ‘good’ is only from a business point of view, not from a residents’ point of view. We’ll go into that a little later. With the expanding road network in the city, it’s no longer a simple junction of two important roads in the city, it is a complicated multi-tiered interchange involving the New Pantai Expressway (NPE), the people who upgraded the interchange in the first place, a few side roads, the KTM Komuter and more importantly, the gargantuan Mid-Valley City, and it’s centre piece of attention, the Megamall.

But the focus of Saville’s marketing is not solely on the Mid-Valley Megamall, it is also touted as an alternative to Northpoint there. Northpoint (preview here) is one of a few planned serviced apartments in Mid-Valley City itself. While Northpoint has almost sold out on good demand, the developers here are emphasizing here that Saville is cheaper (RM280-300 compared to RM400), freehold (Northpoint is leasehold) and 2 parking bays provided (Northpoint doesn’t provide parking with unit).

Comparing the development to the successful and massive development across the highway presents a few problems for Saville. People buy into the apartments there because of a few reasons – they want to have the prestigious address it offers, and the want the convenience of staying, working and shopping all within the same district, something IGB has executed well enough. These people know what they want, and don’t mind paying the premium for it (usually price isn’t a big issue for these investors or residents). Therein lies the dilemma for Saville – it’s a distance away, and does not possess the all the allure that makes Mid-Valley, how do you, ‘alluring’, so to speak.

But they try hard, and we concede that they’ve done a good job even with the small plot of land available. They also frequently reminded us that it is only a brisk 8-minute walk to Mid-Valley City along a ‘special pedestrian walkway’ that is ‘very safe’. They’ve tried it themselves, they say. But here’s the thing – Malaysians don’t like to walk. Especially in the hot sun and torrential rain. Especially, too, when it involves shopping with lots of bags. We can bet a lot of the people that will stay here would still drive the loop to Megamall to participate in the number one recreational activity of our proud nation, i.e. shopping.

While it is located at the aforementioned junction, getting to this place is easy – if you’re coming from the KL end of the Federal Highway, or Cheras. If you’re coming from the PJ end of the Highway or Lingkaran Syed Putra, you have to do a series of ‘U’ turns to get there as the building is located facing the tail end of the ramp from the viaduct. You’ll see what we mean if you’re there. Unless, as they say, you walk…

As we said, the plot is small, only about 1 acre. Previously a petrol station occupied the lot, folks familiar with the area will remember which one. With this tight area to work with, they’ve come up with a single tower, with just only the access road around it. Entry and exit goes directly onto the Old Klang Road, contributing to the already heavy traffic in the area. Unless, as they say, you walk…

Saville Residence consists of a shopping mall on the ground floor, and two floors of office, followed by 7 storeys of parking, the podium for common facilities and then 20 floors of the apartments. We expect the shops here are cater mainly for the residents and the lunch crowd from the offices, as there are hardly any catchment of residential market to cater for. Besides, most people would go for that big shopping centre across the interchange, what’s it called again…?

But seriously though, the convenience of work / shop / live in the same place (as with any other serviced apartment with a shopping mall), is also executed here, and we think there are people who will go for that idea here.

There are about 181 units arranged in two sides of the building, with up to 12 units per floor. The alignment of the building is puzzling, as the side of the thin building faces Mid-Valley and KLCC, so only the corner units get the full view, while one other façade gets a skewed view. The full façade faces PJ on one side, while the other generally side faces Seputeh / Cheras. And the PJ façade looks down into Old Klang Road. We think it may be quite noisy.

There are 4 basic unit types (A to D) , and they all have slight variations due to mirror image units and depending on which view they have. Type E is a special version of the basic unit, with a garden in the yard, and only available on the 11th floor. Type F is the larger penthouse at 2,489sq.ft.

The typical units range from 1,237 to 1,388sq.ft. and all have 3+1 rooms. There is also an additional utility room with access from outside the main door, it can’t be used or anything other than a store, cloak room or to store your shoes. With 3+1 rooms and 3 baths (and a balcony), the dining and kitchen is rather small. The yard is quite big, though, but we suspect most people will convert the tiny bedroom 3 into a study. The maid room is quite big, maybe they should have made it smaller (with apologies to the maid) and used the space for bedroom 3. Probably due to the constraints on the building footprint, the units are laid out in a traditional way, with up to 6 units arranged in a row, all sharing two party walls (except of course the corner units). Maybe they could have gone for bigger, more private units, but it would come at a price of fewer units.

But having said that, 181 units is quite low density, but we suspect the developers were hampered by the plot ratio and maximum building height.

The development is a little thin on the facilities, beyond the usual swimming pool, gym, playground, al fresco dining and function hall, since there are shops just below.

Maintenance fee is 24sen psf, please check with the sales people for the latest info. Each unit comes with 2 parking bays.

The pricing starts from RM328,300 to RM770,000, which averages to about RM280 to about RM300psf.

Generally, we don’t fancy serviced apartments. Especially the ones that are on top of shopping centres (for context, see our reviews for Beverly Tower, K Residence and Axis Ampang). In the subtext of Saville Residence, let’s put it this way – for those who love the concept of an integrated lifestyle residence where working, shopping and living is all at your doorstep, they’ll probably bought a unit in Mid-Valley already. Or for that matter, any other of these integrated boutique places like CapSquare or even Metropolitan Square depending on your preference of location. For those who missed out on the opportunity to buy into Northpoint, this may represent a good alternative. For us, we prefer residence that are away from city bustle and traffic congestion and crazy weekend shoppers and the ilk. If we were to stay in the city centre, the residence should still maintain some degree of serenity and calm, or at least some inkling of it.

But as we said, Saville works as a sort of SOHO for those looking for it, and as a cheaper alternative to the aforementioned Northpoint. Perhaps, the developers should see the place in the context of being in the Old Klang Road vicinity, as there would be their immediate neighbourhood. By that reckoning, Saville looks attractive, considering the surrounding. They could also have gone for a better design, both the building as a whole and internally. But maybe it must be conceded that the land size isn’t sufficiently to create a building of reasonable impact for this stature.

Having said that, we believe investors would still be able to reap good returns here, especially if you get a good unit at a good price. But like we said, serviced apartments aren’t for us.

There’s been quite a lot of interesting discussion about Koi Tropika both here in Property Malaysia and other forums, so we thought we could drop by to snap some pics. Koi Tropika is located in Puchong, somewhere near Puchong Hartamas and just behind Bandar Puteri.

The developer is Lingkaran Unik Development Sdn Bhd, the same people who brought you Koi Kinrara Suites (review here) and Koi Legian. To find out more about the developer, you are encouraged to read that review and the comments.

Anyway, here are some photos we took recently:

Below: These are the highrise Blocks C & D, which should be handed over by the end of the year. Looks like they still have quite a bit of housekeeping to do.

Below: This is a shot taken further away. Note the kampong area in the foreground and surrounding the condo. A lot of buyers and commenters have mentioned this.

Below: These are Blocks A and B, which are lower rise units handed over earlier in May this year. There are people staying there already. They also have that polka dot pattern.