Property Malaysia

Oh yeah, before we forget there are two property exhibitions coming up on consecutive weekends. First up this weekend, is the annual MAPEX 2007 organized by REHDA.

Malaysia Property Exposition (MAPEX ) 2007

Date: 9 to 11 March 2007 (Friday to Sunday)
Venue: Halls 2 & 3, Mid Valley Exhibition Centre (MVEC), Mid Valley Megamall.
Opening Hours: 10:00 am - 9:30 pm
Admission: FREE
Organizer: Real Estate & Housing Developer’s Association Malaysia
(REHDA Malaysia)
Telephone: 603-7803 2978
Fax: 603-7803 5285 / 7805 1206
Website: http://www.rehda.com

If you don’t know where Mid-Valley is, just ask any teenager who loves shopping.

Next up, the following weekend:

Mega Malaysia Property Showcase 2007

Date: 16 to 18 March 2007 (Friday to Sunday)
Venue: Legar Putra, PWTC.
Opening Hours: Not sure, but should be the usual-lah.
Admission: FREE
Organizer: Exhibition Guide (M) Sdn Bhd
Telephone: 603 9056 3323/012 3062 980

As with the previous years, MMPS is held at the same time and venue as the mega-crowd magnet MATTA Fair, so the place will be jam-packed with people. We’ll definitely be there for the latter (frankly, more for MATTA Fair), as for MAPEX, see first la. I’m thinking 90% of the exhibitors will be the same for both events.

It’s been some time coming, but Bandar Bukit Puchong 2 has launched their latest landed phase. It is a gated and guarded development christened Ametis, which is a limited series of double-storey and two-and-a-half storey linkhomes with and interesting layout design to set it apart from the usual fare.

For some of the earlier launches in this area, you can find the reviews here:

Nilam Puri
Nilam Terraces
Baiduri Courts

Also, you may want to check out this write-up:

Home Ownership Bazaar By Bandar Bukit Puchong 2

Bandar Bukit Puchong is situated at the southern end of the LDP, just before the last toll gate enroute to Putrajaya and Cyberjaya. So in actual fact, BBP is actually very near the many number of projects along the Pasar Borong Selangor road, like Alam Sanctuary, Equine Park, etc. Just to make it clear, both BBP and BBP2 are actually connected together and are only differentiated by the fact that the former lies in the jurisdiction of MPSJ while the latter is in MPS’ territory. This 1320-acre development is freehold and was formerly part of a larger plantation owned by the Ayer Hitam group.

According to the sales staff, the developer has decided to revamp their concept of homes by engaging a different consultant, and judging from the looks of Ametis, it definitely draws from a different book as the earlier launched homes. Here, are 120 units of homes, arranged neatly in four rows, with a rather small green area right in the middle split into two levels. There is also a narrow strip of greenery from the entrance of the development right up the central park, this is part of the “one acre tropical backyard right next to your living room”. More on this later.

There are two designs to choose from Contempo and Classic, which we take would represent differing contemporary and classical choices (inasmuch as a housing layout can be deemed as such). Each block of units, from the shortest with 11 units right to the longest with 16 units, has one corner unit with an additional half floor, making it a special 2 ½ storey unit. This applies for both the Contempo and Classico variant.

The Classic represents a more traditional layout (2,154sq.ft.), with the living room at the front, 3+1 rooms and 3 baths. The extra half floor for the corner unit boosts up the built up (2,961sq.ft.) by adding a very large master bedroom with attached bath and walk-in wardrobe. Here the utility room (or maid’s) is quite large, and thus making the wet / dry kitchen very small. Very small indeed. The intermediate and end units have a larger family area on the second floor than the corner units in lieu of the stairways.

The Contempo layout is the one that will get the young couples and families talking. It follows the design that once popularized in some Precincts in Putrajaya, and more recently in Lake Edge – the living room is at the rear of the house. This would mean the kitchen and service areas (including the maid’s room) is at the front of the house. Not only that, there is a yard, or should we say an airwell that opens up all the way to the roof and sky next to the dry kitchen. It is necessary to have this airwell due to the layout of the unit, or else the maid’s bath and kitchen will have no ventilation. But an airwell is not as ideal as on open window out to the back, airflow may be a problem here. The living room, which opens out to the back, has a small narrow pond within the unit. If you choose the unit right next to the aforementioned green area, you will have your living room face the landscape area. However, not all Contempo units have this advantage.

We liked the façade and external surrounding of the house – it uses fresh pastel colours and nice finishing touches. However, we’re quite neutral with the whole ‘courtyard’ and ‘living room at the rear’ concept, which one of our associates noted as ‘weird’. It does takes a little getting used to, but the rest of the house is quite well designed. But we should not that 20’ is quite narrow, and somehow with this layout, it is accentuated more that you can feel a little constricted.

Units start from RM350k to RM711k, and are pretty reasonably priced for the build-up.

Ara Hill is one of the last packages of land in the 16-acre Ara Damansara development. Anyone who is actively looking for landed homes in the Damansara / PJ vicinity will undoubted have seen or at least heard of this place, given the high visibility of this 762-acre project over the years since it’s launch many years ago.

To get to Ara Hill, you need to get onto the old airport road in Lembah Subang. Then just before the roundabout near the actual airport, there is a new flyover interchange where if you turn left, it will bring you to Saujana. But turn right under the bridge to get to Ara Damansara and from then on you will see lots of banners directing you to Ara Hill. In terms of location, Sime is marketing this as the last piece of large scale landed / lowrise development in the whole of PJ, given the maturity of the land development here and the scarcity of good land.

But the main attraction of Ara Damansara is in fact the surrounding environment and it’s connectivity. The land here in Lembah Subang is well planned out to be low density compared to the other areas in PJ, mainly because of the old Subang Airport, the Putra LRT depot and the Saujana Golf Course, and some Malay reserve land surrounding it. There is talk of extending the LRT line for some time now, but as it is, nothing is confirmed. From Ara Damansara, you can easily go onto the NKVE, Federal Highway, LDP and also to other areas like Damansara. There is also a planned connecting road from here to Tropicana, but it still has yet to materialized after so long.

Speaking of Ara Damansara and Ara Hill in particular, there are a few positives that the developers are emphasizing to make it unique – the first, of course it being low density (25 units per acre). The second is landscaped environment, which looks like a lot of thought and many money put into it. The highlights include 50% of the whole 16-acres has been dedicated to open parks, 1.5km of shaded walking trails, 1km of meandering waterways, etc. Also, they are playing the feng shui card heavily in the marketing, which is quite rare for a developer like Sime, a testament of not just it’s target market, but rather the popularity of this practice among all walks of Malaysian life. The area is also gated and guarded like other projects of this prestige.

A third element is, of course the view from the low hill that the homes sit. Although the hill isn’t on a high elevation, but at least buyers can be rest assured that the current view would not be obstructed in the future since the lower levels there existing linkhomes.

Only the first phase of Ara Hill is open for sale at the moment, which represents about half of the site.
Ara Hill being the most expensive launch in the development, is basically two types of homes - condominium and low-rise villas. The condos are between 8-10 levels with 290 units in all, but there are 11 layouts to choose from, ranging from 1,300 to 5,000sq.ft. The 3-storey villas are limited 110 units only, with the sizes from 1,600 to 4,200sq.ft.

With the many types of units available, there are plenty to choose from for the buyers, especially for those who appreciate good interior decoration. The condos come with no less than 4+1 rooms, with at least 3 rooms coming with ensuite attached baths. The condo units have 4 to 13 units per floor, but it is very much different from any other kind of condo since they are sparsely spaced, most units are “semi-D” in the sense that they are connected to only one other unit. There is a smaller unit available in some blocks at only 1,313sq.ft. However, there are very limited in number.

The lowrise villa represent larger units and are naturally more exclusive in nature.

Sime are really pushing for an upmarket image here, and judging from the initial response, you’d be surprise that there a lot of Malaysians who are immediately ready to snap up expensive units like these. This isn’t really only limited to Ara Hill, some other projects of similar prestige are also the same, this perhaps represents the rising affluence of a sector of the local market.

We were adequately impressed by Ara Hill. At about RM420psf, it is still very affordable, if you compare it to other upmarket areas like Kenny Hills, Damansara Heights, Bangsar and KLCC. It is about the same pricing as in Mont’Kiara, but anyone can see the environment is very, very different from there. Like miles apart. On the negative side, one can also argue at a price of just a little more than half a million, you can buy a pretty large landed unit elsewhere. But then again it boils down to how you feel of the area.

Maintenance fee is expected to be about 30sen psf. There is a clubhouse with a wide range of facilities, including a ‘cascading free-form’ swimming pool, playground, gym and tennis courts (where the show unit is temporarily located now).

Sime is one of the largest property developers in Malaysia, with many years of experience. At the moment, their other larger developments in the Klang Valley include Putra Heights, USJ and Subang Avenue. They also have property management interests here in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, China and Australia. Some of the other properties by Sime that have been reviewed by us can be found here: