Property Malaysia

February has come to an end, and now March is upon us. We managed 3 reviews, despite the long holidays where most of us were on holiday. But hey, they always tell us that right after Chinese New Year is the busiest time for property launches. Let’s see…

The reviews for February are as follows:
Iris, Pinggiran USJ
Taragon Puteri, YKS, Kuala Lumpur
Ampang Putra Residency, Ampang

Did anyone read this in today’s The Star Metro?

ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS GO DOWN HARD ON PROTESTERS

ABOUT 12 enforcement officers from the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) burst into Taman Hijau Apartments in Ukay Heights recently and started tearing down banners and placards put up by the residents in protest against an development project in the neighbourhood.

An eyewitness to the incident who refused to be identified said the officers were dressed in their official uniforms and came storming into the apartment area at about 11am without proper documentation, shouting and behaving like hooligans.

“They did not gain permission but merely stormed in and refused to identify themselves,'’ she said.

“It was shocking to see officers from the local authority behaving like that,'’ she said.

Expatriate H. Berbar said the officers were rude and when he started taking pictures of the raid, they covered their nametags on the uniforms.

“The whole incident happened so fast that I sprained my ankle during the commotion,'’ he said.

“When we questioned one of the officers, he said we did not have a permit for the banners.

“My question is why did they not take down all the other signages in Ukay Heights, which obviously did not have permits as well?

“Where was their permit to enter private property and remove items?'’ asked Berbar.

Datuk Mustapha Mahmud, who is a resident of Taman Hijau, said he was alarmed when he saw the way the officers were behaving.

“Technically, they do not have the right to come into the property as it is private owned yet they did so and when I questioned them about it, they ran away,'’ he said.

Read the full article here.

As bad as the PR of some of the local councils with public, this has got to make it worse. That area has a lot of foreign expats staying there, how do you think it will make Malaysia look? Bad. Especially with the government trying to promote Malaysia My Second Home and Visit Malaysia Year.

We’re STILL in a holiday mood.

Meanwhile, it’s a good time to check out an article from Forbes on the World’s Most Expensive Homes.

We definitely can’t afford, but we can admire (and drool), can’t we…?

For the full article and photo montage, click here.

With the holidays in full swing, we had plenty of opportunities to catch up with old friends and associates, some of them experienced hands and insiders of the property business.

While most of the time we talked of other stuff, each time we talked about property, it was always around the question of “How’s the outlook for property this year?”. Well everyone has their own views, but by and large, most of them shared the same view repeated by a lot of people - high end homes and niche homes may soften, affordable and entry-level homes should be unaffected.

Of course, this is the ’safe’ view, obviously held by many, but that isn’t any indication of whether it’ll be true or otherwise. In reality, no one knows for sure, as much as no one can predict the future, not even the developers themselves. They have good instincts or gut feeling, but by and large developers have one (or at most 2 or 3) projects they can launch, how many mega-developers have so many ready-t0-launch projects to choose from to suit the market sentiment?

But coming back to the topic, this article by the Star, offers a different opinion.

WHILE 2007 will mark a neutral year for the mass property sector as a whole, the high-end and niche market is expected to continue flourishing.

The outlook for the high-end property developers is looking bullish, and this can also be attributed to the recent easing of rules by the Government on foreigners owning residential properties.

Analysts believe that despite the neutral property outlook this year due to excess supply in the market and cautious consumer sentiment, high-end developers will continue to deliver superb results and enjoy the benefits of the latest ruling. This trend has already been reflected in earnings of property companies.

For the full article, you can read it here.

Happy new year, everyone!

May all our readers enjoy a prosperous year ahead. We will be around throughout the week, but i doubt we will be posting much due to the festivities…

So to everyone, have a good holiday, don’t drink and drive.

Also, it would be nice if our readers could leave your well wishes for the Property Malaysia team in the comments box below, thanks to all in advance…!

The area around the junction of Jalan Ampang and the MRR2 has seen a bit of a development growth recently. July last year saw a huge Tesco open there, followed soon by some shoplots under construction right next to it. Across the road, there are some new public housing flats, and if you go in through the road in between the towers, it will lead you to the older Taman Dagang and Putra Sulaiman area.

Right in the middle of the low and medium cost flats and existing shoplots, Insas has just launched a commercial project that consists of shoplots and serviced apartments called Ampang Putra Residency. The site is located on Jalan Ampang Putra 6, just down the road from One Ampang Avenue.

On a rectangular piece of land, they are planning 18 units of 3-storey shoplots fronting the main road, and there are two towers of serviced apartments, totalling 367 units. There are two similar towers, but only Tower A is open for sale at the moment.

These shopping area cum serviced apartment concept is experiencing a sort of mini-revival in the city centre recently, with some reviewed by recently are as follows:
Beverly Tower, Plaza Medan Putra
Kuchai Avenue
The Tropics, Tropicana City

And some older ones for comparison:
Axis Residency
K Residence

While here they are shoplots and not really a shopping mall per se, the concept is still quite the same, where the condo residents enjoy the convenience of retail right at their doorstep, while the entire development serves as a vibrant centre of commerce and excitement for the larger area that surrounds it.

There are two mid-height towers of 25 storeys, each has two wings, and are similar in facade but slightly different in layout. The first five floors are taken up by parking area, followed by 18 floors of typical units. The top two floors are reserved for penthouses. We like the fact that it isn’t high density, with only 367 units. Each unit comes with only one parking bay, but additional parking spots are available for RM25,000. Here’s a problem. Most families or renters in a house have at least 2 cars, and this will probably cause the residents to park outside in the commercial area or on the streets around the development. Not good.

There are only 3 typical layouts to choose from, and they are all built up on a rectangular footprint, which some people will find pretty odd, considering the multi-cornered trend of condos available these days.

The studio apartments, look in plan like a parking bay for a large trailer, with its long and narrow footprint. There are four of these in each floor, on the east side of wing, so these units look into the rising sun. Which is kinda strange, coz the larger Type B units then face the setting sun dead on. The studio units are 607sq.ft., comes with a very small kitchen area, and the bedroom is between the living and windows out to the balcony. This makes the living unit a bit stuffy unless you have the airconditioning switched on all the time. However, they have provided an amply large balcony, so some people may prefer to use that as the primary living space ( hey, I would). As a reference, the units is only 14′ wide.

Type B is the larger intermediate unit on the other wing, the one with the illuminating view of the afternoon sun. It’s 1,234sq.ft in size, actually just twice the size and footprint of the studio. There are 3 rooms and two baths, and because of it being an intermediate unit with only one side of open windows, one of bedrooms look into an airwell, as with the kitchen and yard. We didn’t like the layout, we felt it didn’t maximize out the 1200+ sq.ft. with such an odd shape.

Type C, the corner unit at 1,290sq.ft. fares slightly better. But here there is yet another odd feature. A wall line clearly delineates the unit in half along the length of the unit, with the living and dining on one side, and the rooms on the other. Odd, odd, odd. ut then again, if you’ve an eye for fantastic interior decoration (and the money to go with it) these petty little stuff won’t matter to you.

The studio unit costs about RM150-175k, while the other typical units go for about RM256-306k. There are penthouse units for above RM500k. The prices average about RM250psf onwards.

There is not much facilities to speak of, considering the proximity to the shops (which shouldn’t be an excuse really) and around the area. But they have the very basic like security and pool.

The area is a matured township, with lots of older landed units and low to medium cost apartments. There seem to be a ready made market for the commercial lots, and not to mention upgraders to these serviced apartments, or families buying for their children or for investment. Regular readers will note that we don’t really fancy serviced apartments, for obvious reasons, and more so serviced apartments with shopping units below. But here, we like that it’s low density, but not the internal layout. Perhaps more thought should have gone into making it more contemporary and attractive. The pricing is steep, but it is to be expected for somewhere so close to the city center.

Maintenance fee is at 20sen including sinking fund, however please check with the salespeople for the latest info.

The developer is a subsidiary of large corporation with diversified interests. The developer arm, however has another landed project in Bukit Rahman Putra called Putra Residen. More info at their website.

Reader Cel has again sent in a photo showing the latest site progress of Sierra Residency

Looks like the earthwork platform is completed and foundation work can commence.

For the original review of Sierra Residency, please click here:
Sierra Residency

For site progress photos taken earlier, you can check these out:
Site Progress: Sierra Residency
Site Progress II: Sierra Residency

Before any confusion starts, the name of the project is as above, although in the brochure, the word ‘Puteri’ is missing. Strangely, all three projects under construction by this developer is similarly prefixed as Taragon Puteri.

This place has been launched for sale since end of 2006, at that time the sales office was located in Megan Avenue II along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. Recently, they completed an actual show unit on site, and we dropped by recently to check it out.

Its located near the junction of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, next to the older Jelita Courts. On the other side is an old bungalow which currently houses a law firm, and on the plots behind are actually 2Hampshire (by Benneton) and Hampshire Residences (by Zelan group, review here). Across the road are mainly old bungalows and used car sales lots, but as you go towards Jalan Ampang, there are lots of highrise high density offices. Yap Kwan Seng usually choked with traffic during peak hours, seeing the number of offices along the road and also that it is an important link between Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ampang.

On this empty land, about 0.5acres in size, the developers have opted for a low density development of about 12 floors of units. There are only forty units available here, and up to 70% has been taken up, so do check with the sales people in regard to which units are available.

Each floor has a maximum of 4 units per floor, making each unit a corner unit. With this alignment, it is important to choose a view you are comfortable with. Because the building is very near the next door building, the view for some units are partly obscured because of this. Alternatively, there is also a view of the Ampang-KL Elevated Highway (AKLEH) slightly at distance, or you are looking out the two aforementioned condo projects along Persiaran Hampshire. But if you’re not too concern of what you see outside your window (or else you’d get a condo with a better KLCC view) then this would not be a concern.

By KLCC standards, a lot of what’s available here is meager, from the common facilities to the entrance foyer. The entrance isn’t grand by any measure, and the developers have even squeezed parking slots on the ground floor to maximize space. In fact, this place is reminiscent of a lot of similar class condos found in Singapore and Hong Kong, where lack of space is a main issue (as a matter of fact, the development is managed by Bluestone Capital, a company whose track record in other countries is in this niche). There is a small indoor swimming pool, gym, pool deck, children play area and sauna, open deck for parties. With the proximity to a lot of city centre leisure attractions like golf courses, pubs, bars, shopping, and parks around here, we think the lack of facilities here won’t figure much, besides, more amenities means higher price and fees.

There are 4 basic unit types, from 1,797 to 1,895sq.ft. all with 3+1 rooms, and with at 4 baths. Only the smallest unit (Type D) has 3 baths, and the layout is much akin to the traditional mid-sized apartment design. Sub-2,000sq.ft is pretty small for a luxury condo, so there the target market here is mainly expatriate renters or couples without large families. The developers are throwing some freebies, including air-conditioning to some rooms, Jacuzzi and shower screen.

Just below the penthouses, they have what they term as a ‘sub-penthouse’ which is basically a one-and-a-half storey duplex unit. The only difference with the typical unit is that is an extra half floor with a master bedroom and attached bath, that’s all. This provides a larger alternative for those who find the typical units a little tight in space. What happened to the space for the rest of the upper floor? Well, it forms part of the penthouse. So actually the penthouse isn’t really a duplex, more like one and two-third floors. Well, floor space is pay-what-you-get-plus-premium anyway. We thought they should they have just done away with the sub-penthouse, and made the penthouse larger, giving it a more exclusive feel, and larger space, as what a penthouse should have.

Maintenance fee is at 40sen including sinking fund, please check with the salespeople for the latest info. Street parking is virtually impossible, unless it’s on the open air car parks around here. There are only 2 passenger lifts servicing the condo.

Price is set at about RM465psf which is affordable considering the competition and is pretty much in line with what is on offer here. The cheapest unit goes for about RM780k.

Taragon YKS offers an alternative to those looking to stay in the vibrant and much touted KLCC area, but do not prefer a high density tower block. All the other condos launched in the area have been high density, some even up to 8 units per storey. Perhaps it is not solely by choice that Taragon YKS is low density, but with this final design it looks appealing in its own way - low density, slightly away from the other condos and almost fully developed neighbouring plots.

Taragon have two other projects, one in Cheras and another in nearby here KL.

That having said that, there are few disadvantages this place faces – being a small plot of land, it has resulted in tight spaces all round the apartment, and smaller build-up for the unit (the plot of land is about half an acre). The traffic here is very slow moving during peak hours. Plus there isn’t much view any way you look.

Low density plays a big part in the attraction here, so we feel it has an advantage that the appeal is much different from the many other KLCC condos out there. Besides with only a few of the 40 units remaining, it should have no problems selling out.

Reader King has submitted some photos of two phases in Bandar Kinrara.

Below: A panoramic view of Damai. Review can be found here.

Below: This is a picture of Simfoni, which are double storey linkhomes.

For the overall development review of Bandar Kinrara, plus a listing of all the phases reviewed by us, click here.

The other day we dropped by this get-to-know the buyers event organized a developer as part of the key-handing over ceremony for a competed project. We weren’t a buyer, we were invited by a friend who bought a unit.

A lot of developers do these events these days, usually part of their marketing to impress the buyers and also to generate buzz to attract publicity. What usually happens is that they invite the buyers for a formal handover ceremony, and in the same time have a party or carnival atmosphere, with welcoming gifts, kids’ games, speeches, etc. Sometimes its not even at project completion yet, some developers have these gatherings midway through the project to show buyers the progress of construction, and at the same time get to know the buyers.

The event we went to was quite well organized, with good food and friendly sales staff making small talk with everyone. They even set up a few counters for appointed contractors doing alarm systems, wardrobe, that kind of stuff.

Unfortunately, the event didn’t turn out as great for the developer. Towards the end, some of the buyers took the opportunity to air their grievances about their homes, and worse still, started to rally up the other buyers who were there. Actually, it shouldn’t have been a huge problem, unfortunately, the marketing team simply didn’t know how to handle the little situation.

But in all, I thought it was a good event. The loud music, balloons and buntings attracted lots of attention and walk-ins from the outside folks.