Property Malaysia

Hi everyone, June’s over, July’s coming on Monday. It has been a busy month for us, diverting our attention on a lot of other stuff, so we only managed 4 reviews this month. Next month we promise more… The reviews page has been updated here.

The reviews for June are as follows:

Pelangi Damansara Sentral, Damansara
Villa Green 3A, Damansara Indah
Armanee Terrace II, Damansara Perdana
The Rafflesia, Damansara Perdana

Touted as the first landed property phase in Damansara Perdana (DP), MK Land have decided to go for the high end market first. All this while the products in DP have either been apartments (like Armanee Terrace), shops (lots of them), office (also lots of them) or serviced apartments (like Metropolitan Square).

To get the secluded enclave feel, this precinct of 90 homes are situated further up from the main road of Damansara Perdana, nearer to Damansara Permai. If you drive in through the main entrance of the complicated interchange on the LDP, you will first pass the apartments, commercial areas, then swing around the hill and then you will come to the site for The Rafflesia.

As with most other large scale mixed development, the strategy here is to first build the population with mass market cheaper apartments (like Flora Damansara) and linkhomes (but not here), make sure the commercial areas are fully matured to sustain the market (yes it does here) and then after a few years, start with the higher bracket luxury units. Here Rafflesia is definitely luxury in terms of pricing – units are from RM1.5million to over RM3million.

Rafflesia is 88 units of 3-storey semi-D units with a guarded community. The built up ranges from 3,800sq.ft. to about 4,600sq.ft. and the finishing here is quite befitting the price tag and overall feel of the unit. The façade and exterior of the unit has a contemporary feel that is widely used in most semi-Ds and bungalows launched these few years, with the pastel colours, large wrapping sills and hoods, louvers, etc. Units come with your own plunge pool in your garden, along with some green area. We actually like the outlook of the unit, although it looks a bit on the thin side considering the footprint and plot size is not as big as expected. The plot size is about 35′ x 80′, with some variations for the different types. Generally it is smaller than the usual 40′ x 80′ that is offered for semi-Ds.

But with three floors contributing to the build-up size, there is lots of room internally to maneuver the design. In fact, the master bedroom takes up the entire 3rd level, with a huge walk in wardrobe and bath.

Of course the design is nice, with so much space. But ultimately, there are probably two main factors that will decide whether one would consider to buy it or not – price and location. Price-wise, the RM1.4mil price tag makes it accessible to a certain niche of buyers available out there in the market. And these people would also be looking around for other similar units available in other competing areas – like Mont’Kiara, Damansara Heights, Ara Damansara, those kind of places. Which links to the second factor, location. If you like the area, with all the convenience of shopping and accessibility, then it goes without saying these are available.

The gated enclave is really nice, with green hills and a lake. As with all other launches in Damansara Perdana, tenure is leasehold. There are no planned clubhouse or facilities for Rafflesia, save for the security. Proximity to NKVE and power lines may be of concern.

While in some parts of the world, houses are getting bigger and bigger all the time (like here), in some parts of Europe, designing small homes is becoming more popular.

Here are 5 examples of oh-so-cute homes that probably won’t sell so well here in KL…

TOP 5 TINIEST PREFAB HOMES.

The 4th one looks cool.

You know the thing about viewing second launches of properties? Especially when it’s almost similar to the earlier launch? We’ve mentioned it before a few times, it’s kind of a double edged sword thing. Everyone can see the earlier phase right there before their eyes, if it is completed. So if it is good, then it serves as the best advertisement your second phase can get. But on the other hand … well, you get the drift.

We’ll keep this review short, in light of that. Just google up the name of the project on the internet, and you’ll find lots of people with things to say about the project, seeing that the first phase, Armanee Terrace, is almost going to be completed. As with most projects, there are good comments, and there are otherwise, so by reading them, and talking to the buyers, you get a fair picture of what to expect. Besides, you can anytime drive by the first Armanee Terrace to see the quality and the facade of the product you will most likely be getting.

We remember pretty well when Armanee Terrace first launch, it was quite a different concept than most other condos at that time. We also remember very well that there was quite a hefty price tag along with the unit, considering Damansara Perdana isn’t was it is today yet. Armanee Terrace II, is almost similar in many ways to it’s predecessor, especially in terms of how the building looks like from the outside. Yeah, about that. Some people have commented it looks a bit like those beach motels built back in 70’s, except on the larger scale.

Damansara Perdana is a large scale project consisting of, so far, lots of condos, commercial areas and some landed properties built around a hill. Most of the areas is slowing blurring into neighbouring developments like Mutiara Damansara and Damansara Damai. Perhaps one day we should do a development review of this area.

Back to Armanee Terrace II. It’s located about halfway between the LDP and NKVE (you can see AT1 clearly from the latter). To get here just turn off the LDP at the most complicated interchange on this highway, drive a distance on the main road past all the commercial areas and you’ll see it on your right. If you are coming from the NKVE, you should turn off at Kota Damansara and come from the direction of the shopping malls. A bit on the traffic here. It’s heavy especially during peak hours. Ask anyone who works in this area and they’ll tell you lots.

On the units. There are over 500 units in AT2 alone, added to AT1 you can safely say it’s quite densely populated when completed. Both condo share the facilities, partly due to the scarcity of land here. Most of the hillside development here, like in Metropolitan Square, are situated next to hillslopes that can be quite steep, so you may want to inspect the site if you have certain phobias.

Layout-wise they have taken the comments on the shortfalls of AT1 and applied them to AT2. However, the concept of is still unchanged here, double-storey units with your own private terrace. What they’ve tried to recreate here is the likeness of having a semi-D or terrace landed home here, but actually in the condo. But unfortunately the price is rather high, but more on that later.

There are two unit types basically, an intermediate type and a corner type. Both unit types are basically the samen but the corner unit has a larger terrace, formed in an L-shape. The terrace is the key feature here, a private garden which is like a large balcony with turfing. There are about 10 units per floor, which means exclusivity isn’t a priority in the design. The other key design feature here is the double volumed living room, which is trendy design but as a trade off, you get a smaller build-up on the second floor.

AT2 has basically larger units all with a minimum of 4+1 rooms. Units come bare finish, and we can foresee that a lot of ID works need to be done to make this place work.

The concept of the terrace doesn’t seem to work well for us. It doesn’t look appealing (with the passe railings) and we have serious problems with the concept of a garden in your unit. Actually, more about the price you are paying here. On the average, we are talking about RM700 to 800k for a 3,000sq.ft. unit, which is steep at any rate. This is comparable to Mont’Kiara (the similarities with the developer’s name does not escape us), but without the prestige and expat market evident in the latter. At that price, you can easily still get a landed double-storey link home or even a semi-D in Petaling Jaya, either new or off the secondary market. Ready to stay homes in Ara Damansara are also in that price range.

MK Land took a risk of sorts with this concept, and while AT1 did well in sales, there are quite a lot of units left for AT2, partly due to the increase in price, imho. The traffice situation here may also be a factor, plus location wise it not DSH or Mont’Kiara. We have been told most of the initial marketing was done to foreigners, mainly in Singapore and HK.

Bottom line - Very expensive, high density.

MK Land are quite established players in the property market, going quite big since the mid 90’s. However, they’ve had some problems with their delivery recently. Damansara Perdana is seen as their flagship development, and they have some years left before it is fully developed.

If you’re the type who are interested in nice design and architectural innovation in your homes, you might want to check out the 8th Malaysia Architecture, Interior Design & Building Exhibition (ARCHIDEX 07) in Kuala Lumpur.

It will be held from the 5th to 8th of July at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. This time round they are featuring a total of 15 avant garde architects and designers from around the world who will present their latest ideas on design. But the more interesting part for us will be the exhibition, where they will be featuring 800 local and foreign participants and more than 600 booths, accommodating 200 local and foreign exhibitors in five halls at the convention centre.

We’re probably going to bump into a lot of our architect friends there…

For more info and biodata of the speakers, check out here and here.

A report in the news mentioned that Sunway is providing 8% GRR on their latest condo in Mont’Kiara

Sunway City Bhd (SunCity) is so confident of the property and rental market in Mont’ Kiara that it is offering a 8% guaranteed rental return to new buyers of its Casa Kiara II condominium.

However, the special scheme, available for a year, is valid for a limited 30 units only

The report also goes on the mention the reasoning behind it.

The scheme is part of SunCity’s objective to provide more value to buyers and it exemplifies the company’s confidence in the buoyant property and rental markets in the area,” said a company spokesman.

Our original review of Casa Kiara can be found here.

But why limited to 30 units only?

This report basically confirms what everyone has been talking about in the past few years - in coffeeshops to boardrooms to showrooms - that foreigners are still looking to buy property in Malaysia.

In an article in the Edge:

A growing internationalisation of the property market is being felt in the country, with interest coming particularly from potential and repeat purchasers in Asia, Australia and Europe, said property consultants.

Regroup Associates Sdn Bhd executive chairman Christopher Boyd said this could be reflected from the recent interest in places such as Langkawi, where beachfront properties may hit the US$2 million (RM6.9 million) mark by year-end. He said purchasers from Hong Kong and Singapore made up the largest number of foreigners taking up residential properties here. Boyd added that keen interest was also seen for the commercial segment.

The article also mentions that Koreans were eclipsing the Arabs as purchasers of residential properties with the Korean business community seeing opportunities here to purchase en bloc for resale in Seoul. This of course brings to mind about the recent purchase of an entire residential block by the Koreans.

Some local projects are still marketing exclusively overseas first before opening up sales to Malaysians. Let’s hope the regional market holds up in the next few critical years.

What’s the definition of a ‘villa‘? Most people associated it with some kind of expensive room in an overpriced beach resort, but for us, we’re more familiar with the word ‘Aston‘ preceding it.

But anyway.

Dijaya are currently promoting their latest phase of semi-D units Villa Green 3A, located in their massive Damansara Indah development. Damansara Indah, for those unfamiliar, is located between Tropicana, Kota Damansara and Bandar Utama. There are two golf courses in and surrounding the development, plus a forest reserve, hence they have cultivated the “golf-green” theme. Most of the units available in this area are higher end landed properties like semi-Ds and bungalows, and also bungalow lots for sale. The only condos within this development are Casa 1 and 2. Casa Tropicana, although just adjacent to this Villa Green phase is as actually considered under the Tropicana development, where this developer also has a substantial interest.

This area, while well-known for it’s upmarket homes, is also well-known for some slow traffic at all exits during peak hours. In all fairness, this isn’t really their doing (well not entirely) but more so due to the exponential-growth in the suburbs surrounding it. It was only about 6 years ago that there was a lot of undeveloped greenery beyond Damansara Indah, now almost every available plot of land has been built, or is earmarked for something. The Kota Damansara NKVE exit gives an alternative to get out of the area, but at a hefty price.

This phase is dubbed ‘Super 3-Storey Fairway Villas‘ (?!), presumably due to it’s proximity to the aforementioned golf courses, and not because it’s located on the fairway. We can say at least here it’s a full 3-storey, not the 2 1/2 you find everywhere these days. But we’re still not sure what the ‘super‘ refers to, the price notwithstanding. The marketing tagline here is ‘it’s bigger than a bungalow!’ (I swear the exclamation mark is not added by me). The other one is ‘enough room for 4 generations‘ (one a leasehold land?). But seriously folks, with our age expectancy, it’s difficult enough to live to see the third generation these days.

Which begs the question - would a bungalow, then, have given a better return for the developer? That, though is something is best left to the developer themselves, but i would think they are giving buyers a choice of owning a slightly more affordable unit to broaden their appeal beyond the existing niche market, but only ever so slightly.

There are two variants available, both identical except for the location of the 2nd floor balcony and the fall of the contemporary-styled roof. The units are 6,200sq.ft. set on a 42′ x 93′ plot size at the minimum. There are 86 of these 3-storey units here, plus two earlier complete 2-storey units, bringing the total to 88.

This enclave is surrounded by bungalow lots, some of which are still under construction or empty, which on the other sides are the forest reserve and golf course respectively. The layout is undeniably luxurious, starting with the wide porch which can fit 4 cars easily. The side garden is 10′ wide, and is slightly elevated from your porch area. There are easily 6 + 1 rooms, with 2 master bedrooms, one each on the higher floors. All the main rooms have attached baths, and on the second floor, the masterbedroom has a nursery, which can also act as a walk-in wardrobe. There is also a pantry, to save you the drudging trips down two floors for those late night snacks. The master bedroom on the first floor comes with a raised jacuzzi.

We definitely like the masterbedroom at the top floor, the bath is spacious and and skylights to let natural light into the unit. The finishing to the toilet, esp the fittings also blend well with their theme. The other thing we liked was the wide stairways. However we found a few jarring defects in the show unit, including the staircase, with this being an actual unit. We hope these niggling issues can be addressed with the other saleable units.

The second floor is detached from the party wall to give some privacy with a narrow gap from your neighbour.

Realistically, at this kind of excessive built-up, you can hardly go wrong. The main deciding factors, in our opinion, are the location, and secondly whether the price is agreeable to you or not. Granted with the massive development rate in this vicinity, this can’t be called secluded or exclusive anymore, especially if you take into account Casa Tropicana next door with it’s 1100 units ready soon. Imagine the number of cars going onto the narrow roads here. But Dijaya has managed to keep this phase relatively affordable (starting at RM2,066,000 onwards), but not compromise of the security and infrastructure. The whole enclave is guarded, just like most of the other precincts around here.

The developer is throwing in some freebies with the unit, please check with the sales personnel for more details.

As with all the other land around here owned by PKNS, it’s leasehold.

Kota Damansara has really taken off in these last five years. Now there is not just one suburb - you have too many smaller areas like Mutiara Damansara, Sunway Damansara, Pelangi Damansara, Damansara Perdana, and many more appearing as fast as people can buy them. If anyone wants to accelerated study growth of an urban area, especially if you are a town planning student, there isn’t a better microcosm example than here.

You have commercial areas that are so happening that traffic is choking the streets, landed houses that double in prices after 2 years of handover, shopping-cum-entertainment centres that are the envy of the entire city, and more obvious to the public is the number of condos coming up in the area. Many developers are rushing to get a piece of the condo pie here. Sunway has long been around this area, and their Opal Damansara is nearing handover just beside the ever busy Persiaran Surian. Then there is Palm Spring @ Damansara, developed by PKNS, the land owner of most of this whole area. There is Casa Indah 1 and 2 which is further up the road. Then there is also the much talked about Cova Villa…

These are just the ones along Persiaran Surian, not including the ones in Damansara Perdana.

MetroKajang is one of the developers who were here early, and they have Pelangi Damansara and Pelangi Square business centre just between Sunway Damansara and Mutiara Damansara. The condo and the shops are on opposite sides of the main Persiaran Surian, and are situated quite near the LDP entrance into the area. MetroKajang have another condo nearby called Pelangi Damansara 2, and the quality of the workmanship is said to be much better than the earlier Pelangi Damansara.

So after building a condominium and a relatively small commercial area (actually it’s only one row of shoplots), MetroKajang is now targeting smaller commercial apartments in the remaining piece of land next to the shops. I doubt that the location is the best on offer in the whole vicinity, but it is near enough to the attractions of the capitalism central at the Curve, Ikano, Ikea, 1 Utama to make it palpable to the younger homeseekers. Why the not-so desirable in the longview? Well, the stretch of road exiting the planned development is really heavy with traffic, even with the traffic lights the road into the shoplots is too short and congested with parking lots to make it effective, anyone who works there can tell you. Right behind the shops are some low-cost flats that add to the traffic coming out of the small junction. And thirdly just behind the proposed site is the powerlines running parallel to the main road.

But demand dictates supply, and a lot of people are demanding homes and retail space around here, so it’s no doubt that despite the above, this will be well-received due to the underlying factors that make this place so hot.

On this fallow 1.7acre piece of land they are planning a development similar to their earlier Saville Residence along Old Klang Road, large retail space on the lower floors, residences on the higher floors. In this case, they have limited units of shops on 3 floors, followed by 4 levels of parking, then the common facilities podium level, and finally 20 levels of units for the residents. This mix has worked reasonably well for them before, so we suppose they are going pretty much the same, except a different location.

I think the retail space will act as individual shops that cater for the open market, not exclusively for the residents as they have a wider choice of where to shop given the proximity. Maybe the shops are meant to be sort of an extension to the existing Pelangi Square shoplots, not merely as convenient stores for the residents.

As serviced apartments go, there isn’t much out of the ordinary here, given the other obvious attractions of the location dictates that you don’t have to stick your neck out to give something extra. Unlike in Mont’Kiara where competition for buyers are forcing developers to push the envelope. But this place has it’s qualities, and lower density is one of them. There are just below 200 units here, limiting the maximum total number of residents, not to mention the volume of cars entering and exiting at peak hours. However, there are 10 units per floor, so exclusivity is not one of the high points.

Choice of units face all directions, the best being the pool view ones. There are some that view the road or Pelangi Damansara 2 (quite okay in our opinion) or you can opt for the ones facing the shoplots (and also the low cost apartments). Or you can pick the less hectic view, away from road, but with a magnificent view of the power lines. Snap to pool views ones fast. Other than the pool, there is a gym, hall, playground and that’s about it. Units are arrange in a long ‘L’ fashion, but there are two lift lobbies at either end. Units each have two long party walls with your neighbours, unless the pick the smaller corner units. There are only two larger corner units, the aforementioned units looking out to the main road.

Small units - that sums the overall concept here. There are 3 types of layout - a studio unit at 674sq.ft., an intermediate size unit at 856sq.ft. (2 rooms 2 baths) and the largest at 1,027sq.ft. with 2+1 rooms. Obviously the target market here is slightly different from the Pelangi Damansara 1 & 2, where instead of families, they are targeting students and younger renters, and of course the investors that will be subletting out to these people. Some units on the podium level have a small attached garden. Don’t flick your cigarette butts out of the window into other people’s gardens, as PCK says.

at RM151k to 256k, it can be said to be reasonably priced, however you are getting small units here (RM220-270psf), and not much facilities, plus average finishing. But then again, it’s called Kota Damansara.

Maintenance fee is at 20sen psf, but check with the salespeople for the latest info.

As far as commercial condos go, they’ve replicated the concept done earlier, as we mentioned above. If you are looking to invest for rental return, go early and grab an attractive unit, furnish it adequately, i doubt you will have much problem getting a renter. As for your own stay, well, there are a lot of other places that you might want to check out first. Busy intersection, powerlines. Small units.

MetroKajang have been around for a long time and have projects all over the Klang Valley.

Wyne has sent in some photos of the recently completed Alam Sanctuary show house. You can read the original review here.