Property Malaysia

You’d think that there wouldn’t be anyone who’d build a condominium in USJ1 right in the bustle of business and traffic there, but apparently there is and there is definitely going to be. The location is right behind Summit USJ, and next to the KESAS highway, off one of the busiest interchanges in Subang Jaya.

Part of the reason why traffic is identifying feature here is because there is two huge hypermarkets here, the places where almost everyone around here goes to. The neighbourhood surrounding the site is almost entirely made of light industrial zones.

Perhaps this Impian Meridian may be catalyst of change for the better in this district, but judging from the experience of Summit USJ, this may be a (very, very) tall order. There is a proposed interchange coming in from the KESAS highway further up, coming in from the side of the hypermarkets, but there is no indication when this will be completed and how much it will help ease (or intensify) the traffic condition.

Impian Meridian is a shopping centre and office with condominium above it. There has been a spate of this type of development around the Klang Valley, nearer here is the recent Empire Subang. We’re not entirely convinced that there is a real demand for this type of retail space from the purchasers to justify the seemingly oversupply materializing in the next two to three years, but it will only remain to be seen. To be fair, most of these shopping centres are not mega large ones in the mould of Mid-Valley or 1-Utama, they (like here) are more of shopping malls consisting of road fronting shops primarily to serve the tenants of the condo above and maybe some of the surrounding areas. In this case, there is virtually no surrounding housing areas (and then there is Summit already), so there is less catchment here.

So therein lies another problem. The residents’ market is usually not sufficient to support so many retail outlets, as proven by a lot of these similar type of projects in other areas of the Valley. But there are of course exception to the rule.

Anyway, let’s talk about the condo. There are 3 floors of shopping malls, followed by 4 levels of above ground parking, then there is the common floor for the condo facilities, and then about 20 storeys of condo levels. At the very top, there is a sky lounge for residents, a concept much copied by every other condo these days, few can really execute it well to justify the marketing hype really.

There are two conjoined towers here, and only Tower A is open for sale at the moment. Tower A has units facing North or South, which is better than the subsequent Tower B which faces East-West. For tower A, the units facing North enjoy the pool view, and also a premium of about RM3k to RM4k. There are 14 units per floor, with two types of units to choose from, either intermediate or corner unit.

The intermediate unit (995sq.ft., 3 bedrooms 2 baths) is priced at about RM235psf. It has an open kitchen style, and the show unit has added a glass wall to separate it from the dining, and it seems a better idea. A large balcony is given here, and at the higher floors this is designed as a lanai, which is basically the same except with enclosed windows. The 3 rooms are almost the same size, and the 2 baths are pretty small.

For the larger corner unit (1,302sq.ft, 4 bedroom 2 baths), it is pretty similar to the intermediate with the exception of an additional room. This room has very little ventilation (only a small window out to the yard) so it works better as a study, besides it too small to be an AV room. The pricing here is about RM328psf.

The units come with 1 or 2 parking bay depending on the build-up. In terms of facilities, it is quite impressive given that they have allotted a large enough space to do something substantial, and there is a large pool and numerous sports facilities.

PJD are experience developers with some good condo designs under their belt, but this one has the disadvantage of the location. Some of the other projects by them reviewed in Property Malaysia are Hartamas Regency 2, Kensington Park, Laman Oakleaf and Endah Puri.