Property Malaysia

This should be good news to most people (although it’s a bit late up here). Something to read while the Internet speed grinds slowly.

Rules on foreign property buy eased

Related story: Developers are jumping for joy, naturally…

This place is situated right next to Kemensah Mewah, in a land-locked plot surrounded by existing bungalows and some flats. The road leading up to this place is their only access, at the moment is quite narrow and poorly maintained, but according to the developers they are going to upgrade this access.

From the MRR2 (Middle Ring Road II) the fastest way to get here is via the National Zoo, which passes through more narrow roads.

There are 23 bungalow lots arranged on two sides of a single street, with a cul-de-sac at the end of the road. There are 23 lots and not 24 because on lot in the middle on one side is used as a park. At the front of the development, there is a smaller green area, and a sub-station.

Kemensah Residency has two types of large bungalow designs to choose from, and the special feature of this project is that you can choose which of the two types that you want to be built on your lot. So first you choose your bungalow lot, then choose which type of unit. An interesting concept that isn’t widely practiced here in Malaysia, which brings with it a whole set of pros and cons. But more on that later.

Let’s look at the 2 types of bungalows available. Plot sizes are at least 65’ x 100’, so you have at least 10’ of setback on the sides and the back, and for the front you have at least 25’ or more.

We’ll start with Elegant, 5,991sq.ft. with 5 + 1 rooms, 7 baths. There’s a large courtyard in the house, as large as the living room. At the front of the house on the ground floor, there is a study / guest room with it’s own outdoor terrace, which we liked. There is also a terrace at the dry kitchen and breakfast area, with forms part of the courtyard. The master bedroom is very large, but there is a walk in wardrobe slightly away it. Most of the rooms above including the family area overlooks the courtyard.

The Classic type is slightly smaller at 5,823s.ft. But then again, at almost 6000sq.ft. who’s complaining? Here the design is more compact, with also 5+1 rooms and 6 baths. There’s a bigger lawn and longer driveway. Instead of the courtyard, there is a large terrace beside living room, large enough to satisfy anyone’s landscaping cravings.

Both types retain a contemporary design, with low windows, and single pitch RC roof. This concept is also reflected in much of the interior. Also, the façade uses plenty of wide groove lines, which is also seen on top of the porch roof. Actually, between the two, there are plenty of similarities, and probably the only deciding factor for buyers is which internal layout you prefer. We’re pretty okay with both designs, but if we were to make a choice, we’d go with Elegant as the courtyard seems attractive for us to do some landscaping. For the super-rich with too many cars, Classic may be suitable as the driveway can easily park 6 or 8 cars, not including on the lawn. Speaking of which, both units come with large lawns, good for those with green thumbs.
The quality of the finishing and specs tend to reflect the prestige of the luxury bungalows, and there are actually a show unit of each type at the site for the buyers to check out. One feature that stands out is the staircase, which is extra wide for the first flight, allowing room for some fancy ID works.

As with Kemensah Mewah, accessibility to the site is not perfect, plus traffic on the highway can be problematic at peak hours. However, this represents the last significant plot of land with the small surrounding area here, and the view to the limestone hills is a major selling point.

Regarding the ‘choose-your-unit-type’ arrangement. This gives more flexibility to the buyer to have their choice of plot AND unit type, but it also presents a few drawbacks. Firstly, if the remaining units are slow to sell off, you have a situation in 2 years time where, construction works are going on when you move into your unit. We’re not talking about light renovation works here, which are annoying enough, but heavy concreting and deliveries. Plus, with the staggered construction, the contractor is bound to price more the works as it not an ideal situation for them.

However, having said that, the developers have noted that they are confident that they are able to sell off all the units within a short span of time, after all there are only 23 units. In addition to that, to avoid all the potential problems mentioned earlier, the developer has actually other ways to work round it, like using agents or buying the units themselves. But we more liable to concur with them that 23 units isn’t a problem for them to sell off fast. Especially when it looks more elegant and attractive when compared, to that, um, next door development…

Price range us from RM2.38mil to RM2.60mil, so you can expect what kind of clientele it is targeted at. We thought the price is expensive nonetheless, but different folks have different perception, that’s for sure.

The developers are first timers, but are actually from Siah Brothers, a prominent builder and developer. The quality looks decent, judging from the show units, hopefully it translates to the other units.

Office parties, candy canes, gift wrapping counters, fake snow on plastic trees, Mariah Carey on the radio…

Merry Christmas to all our readers out there. Have a good weekend, don’t drink and drive, and see you all again next week. We still have a queue of reviews to be posted up…

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

There are property launches and then there a BIG property launches. This here, folks, is as big as they come in Malaysia. A relentless media campaign started about a month ago, in papers and on radio. Last weekend, they even managed to get our Deputy Prime Minister to officiate the launch of the township.

But I&P isn’t any regular developer. They’re big guns, and the sheer scale of Alam Impian can attest to that. In a nutshell, look at the factsheet:

• 1235-acre township on former plantation land (formerly under Golden Hope)
• 100-acre town area.
• Estimated 10,000 units of new homes with a population of 50,000 inhabitants. This first launch represents only about 1% of the final figure in terms of homes.
• 31-acres of green parks, landscaped areas and lakes.
• Every home is located within a 1.5km radius of a school and linked via an integrated 20km network of walkways and bicycle paths.
• Freehold land
• Multiple access from the highways, including a dedicated interchange to KESAS.

Alam Impian is located between the Federal Highway and Kesas Highway, almost across the road from Kota Kemuning and Kota Permai Golf Course. At the moment, from the Federal Highway, the existing road stops at river. The developers will build a bridge to connect to the site, which will be ready by the time the first phase is completed for occupancy in 2008. The connection to the existing Kota Kemuning interchange along KESAS, however, will only be completed in 2010. In the interim, there are other existing exits out to Klang and Shah Alam.

At this moment, there isn’t much details as to the rest of the development, as they are only launching 2 phases: Tinta (semi-D) and Canting (linkhomes). For Tinta, only half of the units are open for sale now, more are following soon.

Tinta is set of 40’ or 50’ x 80’ plot, with a build-up of 3,113 to 4,005sq.ft., 4+1 rooms and 5 baths. Price range is from RM552k to RM795k. The ground floor has a much smaller footprint, but the first floor is much larger. There are actually quite a few design variations to choose from, and some units come with very large compound, which justifies the heftier price tag.

Canting is a more conventional linkhome, in either two or two and a half storeys. The plot size is 22’ x 80’, build-up ranges from 2,439 to 3,471sq.ft. There are 4 rooms and 4 baths. The corner units have a special larger design, giving a total of 4 different variations to choose from.

At the moment, we can say that the pricing is quite attractive (the cheapest linkhome is from RM330k with the discounts), mainly because this is the pilot 2 phases in a large development. But this would only be more apparently especially if the scheme is a success 5 to 6 years down the road. Subsequent launches will definitely increase in price, especially when the amenities and infrastructure are more realized, thereby adding value and attraction to it. We can see a lot of similarities with other large scale projects like soon-to-be-completed Setia Eco Park, Kota Kemuning in the late nineties, and Bandar Kinrara before that (which is also developed by I&P).

Location will be a huge factor in play, as most people will see it as quite far from the city. But if you work in Shah Alam or Klang, it is an ideal place. With the promise of the landscaping and ‘township of the arts’ thing, we can only wait to see how it all turns out, perhaps the developer will be able to work out more details soon for the benefit of the buyers.

But for those who value buying from a top of the line developer, this is a good chance. Klang Valley is expanding, and there definitely won’t be any other major developments of this sort anywhere within the confines of the older city, so new areas on the fringe of the valley is the way to go for developers. To put things in perspective, more than twenty years ago, Subang Jaya was pretty far back then. Kota Kemuning is still perceived as far these days.

At the moment, the developer is giving an early bird discount. Staff of I&P and PNB are also entitled to additional discounts.

I&P Alam Impian is a wholly owned subsidiary of Island and Peninsular, the one of the largest developer in Malaysia. They’ve more than 40 years of experienced and you can check out the parent company website here.

Following are a couple of site progress photos of the Meritz by DNP and K Residence along Jalan Ampang.

Below: The first 3 are on the Meritz.

Below: This one is K Residence, almost halfway up.

The review for the Meritz is found here and K Residence is reviewed here.

Update Feb ‘07: We’ve some latest photos here.
Update Jan ‘07: For some latest photos taken in January 2007, please click here.

Reader Cel has submitted 2 photos of the earthworks at the Sierra Residency site taken recently. There’s a very active discussion at the review post on this blog, you can check it out here.

We weren’t advertising any particular company or any of that sort of thing, but we and some friends have been doing a bit of survey on home loans recently.

When people talk of home loans, first thing that comes to mind are the banks. Especially when 5 or 6 of those big banks set up counters at property launches with all their complicated packages.

Recently, some of our friends have taken up home loans from insurance companies, offering fixed rate loans, guaranteed for the tenure of the loan up to 30 years. As far as we know, at the moment, only two companies are offering this - AIA and ING. AIA is offering a fixed rate of 6.15%p.a.

The main draw that attracts people to is summarized in their website:

Analysis of the lending rate over the past twenty three (23) years can only give us a historical guide of the interest rate cycle. Based on figures provided by Bank Negara (for the period between 1980 to 2003), the average Base Lending Rate (BLR) for commercial banks is 8.38% a year with an average lending rate of 9.80% This means that for a loan taken for the past twenty three (23) years, the average interest rates were charged at 9.78% whereby lending rates have peaked as high as 12% and as low as the current BLR of 6%.

There’s a graph from Bank Negara that shows the BLR and LR over the same period.

(graph taken from AIA website. Hope they don’t mind)

To be fair to the banks, most of them also have a fixed rate home loan scheme, usually under the Islamic banking system, which is open to all Malaysians regardless of whether they are Muslims or not. Also, as one of our friends put it, banks always offer incentives for refinancing (especially for the first 5 or 10 years) like zero moving cost, BLR-XX, to stay competitive. Maybe its a good idea to enjoy these benefits now, and go for fixed rates when (or if) the BLR shoots sky high in a couple of years.

But there is also a lockdown period to think of.

But anyway, fixed rate loans by insurance companies offer more options to housebuyers, and keeps everybody competitive.

We first came to know this plot of land when someone approached us to look at another nearby piece of land. At that time, IOI hadn’t started work yet, at that time we were quite curious as how IOI would want to develop that difficult plot of land. As it turned out, they opted for some commercial lots fronting the Sg. Besi - Puchong road (also called the Bukit Jalil highway), and an apartment on the hillslope behind it.

Avilla is situated very near the busy intersection of the LDP, the aforementioned Bukit Jalil Highway and Jalan Puchong. Bandar Puchong Jaya was developed some 10 years back, if you travel around the area you can see some of the old linkhouses. After the few years of construction, IOI shifted their focus to the more lucrative and larger Bandar Puteri, where work is still ongoing through the many, many phases there. Meanwhile, in the last year or so, IOI have started to develop out the remaining land within Puchong Jaya, where the development of surrounding areas have started to make these pockets of land look more attractive.

To get here, get onto the Bukit Jalil Highway from Puchong or Old Klang Road. If you are coming from Sunway, don’t use the flyover. Just before the first Petronas, turn in behind the row of new shop lots and you’ll see Avilla, which is being constructed halfway at the moment. Looking at the location here, there a slight problem in terms of access. Going out to the main Bukit Jalil Highway is left turn only, meaning you need to get to TPM to make a ‘U’ turn. Another alternative is to go through the old housing area behind it (Jalan Bangau) and come out onto the Old Puchong Road, which is also left turn only, but at least you’ve more choices of where to go from there.

We think this issue is the key factor in attracting buyers (or not).

Other than that, there isn’t much spectacular to expect from Avilla, it being a medium cost apartment with standard features. On first impressions, it looked a lot like IOI’s own Bayu Puteri, and both are basically in the same price range.

There are two blocks of 15 storeys, both identical. In between are the common facilities like pool and playground. Each floor has 8 units, 4 corner units and 4 intermediate ones. There are only 2 types of units, the corner unit (Type A) is 1,033sq.ft. while the other (Type B) is smaller at 968. Both types are quite similar with 3 rooms and 2 baths, and a balcony. Design is pretty basic stuff. There is one retail lot at the ground floor.

One parking per unit, all are outdoor covered bays. Since being next to the hill, basement parking was not an option, a huge part of the 6 acres plot was used for parking.

Avilla looks to us as a affordable entry level apartment with facilities to match the pricing. There are only the row of shoplots in front of it, anything else you need to drive out. Obviously Bandar Puteri has better location and amenities. Also limited parking will ensure street parkers choking that narrow street outside the apartment, if the commercial area parkers haven’t done so already.

Maintenance fee is 18sen psf, please check with the sales people for the details.

Reader aaronpang has sent 2 pics taken at the recent Mega Malaysia Property Showcase.

thanks aaron. anyone else took some pic or want to comment on the event…?

House renovation is a very lucrative business. Don’t believe us? Just drive around a newly completed housing estate and observe a few things:

• The number of houses doing renovations;
• The size of the renovations (especially relative to the original house);
• And the number contractors present in the area, with their huge banners advertising themselves, hung at the houses they are working on.

There are a few reasons why we say renovation work is lucrative.

One, there isn’t a fixed rate for a lot of these things. Let’s say you’ve been staying in your house for 5 years. One day, you decide to widen the gate (to accommodate parking 2 cars in your driveway). This involves moving a lot of stuff, like your refuse chamber, water meter, widening the slab over the drain, and tiling up the small patch of grass so that you can park your new Smart ForTwo next to your existing Honda City. You can get quotes ranging from RM5,000 to RM20,000. Or even higher. Some promise you ‘better quality’ with a premium price, but you can’t really tell that, can you? It’s not like there’s a scale model or show house for you to refer to. And by the time it finished, and the quality bombs big time, well…

Secondly, a lot of these works are not documented. No contract documents, no receipts, no invoices, etc.

Thirdly, renovation contractors are really good in upselling. For this price, you get this, but hey, for RM1000 more, you get this nice stainless steel gate, it’s all the rage now you know. That cheaper gate, any thief can jack it in 3 minutes. And oh, by the way, I know a guy that can do kitchen cabinets for you at a good price, want to do or not?

In some new housing estates, a few contractors band up to share business, while making sure no outsiders come in and ‘steal’ their business. It happened to my neighbour, who got his brother-in-law to do the renovations to his just-completed house. Simple stuff, just add in grill, change the gate, kitchen cabinets, tiling. The ‘resident’ contractors came and threatened my neighbours brother-in-law to leave everyday until they completed the works.

Let’s put it in perspective. On the average, every landed house in a newly completed project needs a few basic renovations – grill, kitchen cabinets and wardrobes, electrical wiring (including lights and fan). Then there are other options like marble floor polishing, air-conditioning, kitchen extension (very popular, I tell you), tiling, paint job, the list goes on. With the high volume of work in a centralized location all in a short period of time, the contractors can offer very competitive prices while still making astronomical profits.

Obviously, there are plenty of good and responsible renovation contractors out there, but sometimes it’s really difficult for people to find the right one at the right price. If anyone has any horror stories about renovation works, feel free to let us all hear…