Property Malaysia

Sunway Damansara is really happening these days. For everyone. For the developers who are established here, for the early buyers who are making a killing from their resale or rental, and from the businesses who are reaping in booming income. And this is not just limited to Sunway Damansara, the whole area is getting the feel good vibes - Mutiara Damansara, Kota Damansara, Damansara Perdana, and everything in between. Not bad for a place formerly known as Bandar Baru Sg. Buloh. Says a lot about how much difference a little rebranding can make.

But anyway, we’ve said a lot about the area in recent times, and it’s best not to repeat it here again. If you are interested, there’s a list of prior reviews of neighbouring projects listed at the end of this review, check them out at your leisure.

If you guys are familiar with Opal Damansara, Sunway’s most visible condo that is nearing completing right along the main Persiaran Surian, then can easily find Challis. It is situated next to Opal, somewhere behind the existing Shell petrol station that you can see clearly on the main road. Previously the site was used as the sales office for Sunway Damansara and the Opal show unit was also located there. Now Sunway has built a new sales gallery nearer to their new Giza specialist retail area.

The first thing you will notice if you take a drive to the site is the presence of the power lines running behind the site. Not just the power lines, there’s a huge exchange next to it, between the site and the petrol station. A lot of people are usually concerned with the long term effects of living to such live cables, so it is best that you see the site yourself to get a better feel.

That is probably the biggest factor in deciding whether you like this place or not. If you are looking for a home but are concerning with the power lines, there are still lots of other areas to consider whether there are landed homes on offer – Mutiara Homes, Kota Damansara, Damansara Indah, etc. But if it is not a big issue for you, or if you are not planning to stay (and hope to find tenants that don’t mind it either), then there shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Then there’s the second issue to consider. Do you like townhouses? At first impressions, our reaction was “Why townhouses?” Is there really a demand for such a competitive area like here? Or better yet, is there substantial demand for townhouses at all to start with? But after awhile studying the project, we sort of see where the developers are coming from, although we may not necessarily entirely agree. See, we think it’s got a bit to do with the first factor above – the power lines. With that, people don’t see it as prime location, so they can’t go for the predictably high end market stuff like luxury bungalows or low rise villas. The land, at 5.3acres isn’t big enough for a substantial condo, and besides, there’s Opal next door. It definitely isn’t large enough for mass market link homes or that kind, and besides, the development cost probably won’t be justified if that route was taken.

So I think they went for the gamble. Make it quirky, off the beaten path. But at the same time throw in some substantial landscaping and shared features to make it attractive, and make the homes upmarket enough to price it higher. That way those looking for townhouses will like it, and fence sitters (who don’t mind what kind of house it is) will still be lured by the attraction. Make it different from your competitors, and grab the niche.

After all, there are only 102 units, we have no doubt that they’ll all be sold even before the show house gets warmed up. Incidentally, the show house isn’t ready. If you buy now, they’re offering a generous discount. But wait for the show house and there discount won’t be available anymore.

The whole development has this close quarters concept, the units are set tightly together. They share a common backlane that is landscaped for the garden effect, and there are public pathways between end lots with the same function. There is only one corner unit with extra garden space, the rest of the units follow the stratified concept closely.

The lot size is large, at 26’ x 80’ to cater for the double entrance for both units. The lower unit is at 2131sq.ft., while the higher unit is larger (2,472sq.ft) perhaps to cater for the need to climb up the stairs everyday. Each unit takes up approximately one and a half floors, there are some awkward nooks and crannies a t the common floor because of this. The driveway can fit 2 cars for each of the two units, if you have more than 2 cars than you have a major problem. The units and their driveways are close spaced with no planter between them, so it is literally impossible to park a car between units without blocking someone’s gate. So you’ll probably end up having cars parked along the main road outside.

For us, townhouses should really be viewed as a very low rise apartment (as opposed to a landed unit shared by two owners), due to the shared walls and apartment-like tight spaces. The major difference is the presence of the driveway, that is instead of having to take a lift down and walking a distance to your car as with most apartments. The one thing that we find problematic with townhouses (imho only) is the lack of ventilation due to lack of frontage to the units. For instance, the lower unit has only the patio for natural ventilation, the front is practically sealed off from air.

If pushed for a choice, we would opt for the higher unit over the lower unit, since the ventilation is better, and perhaps for the larger space. But then some people prefer the lower unit just for the convenience of not having to climb up the stairs daily.

Would we buy it if we were in the market for a home in the area? We never really warmed to the idea of townhouses since the first one we saw more than 10 years ago somewhere in Old Klang Road. The idea works well in densely populated areas where land is scarce, but it not necessarily the reason behind it being chosen here. Ultimately, even if we were looking for a townhouse, we may still put the concern of power lines at the priority. The units are also a little too closely built up with each other for our liking, we are more partial to more breathing space between neighbours, even if it means smaller homes. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we’re not fans of townhouses.

Challis is part of a massive development in this area handled by the Sunway Group in association with the land owners PKNS. Away from this area, Sunway are an established property and construction player (among many other fields) in Malaysia. Some of the projects by them reviewed here in Property Malaysia are:
Casa Kiara II, Mont’Kiara
Sunway Cheras: Phase 2B &3, Cheras

Here’s a list of the recent reviews of some of the projects in the vicinity:

Pelangi Damansara Sentral, Damansara
Casa Indah 2, Damansara Indah
Opal Damansara, Kota Damansara