Property Malaysia

When an associate of ours went to see this site some months back due their preview launch for registrants, her first reaction when she came back was “It’s SO FAR!” (she stays somewhere in PJ). Well, distance is a relative thing, but for most of Klang Valley folks, Sg. Long IS far, unless you stay in Cheras and beyond.

But this is one project we’ve been keeping tabs on for a long time, our preview of the project in Property Malaysia was more than a year ago (you can see it here). But to be frank, we know the people working on the project behind the scenes well, and they’ve been working hard on this project for some time even before that.

Let’s talk about the location first. Twin Palms is location on both sides of the Sungai Long toll plaza along the Kajang-SILK highway. On the Kajang-bound direction is where the bungalow phases are located, while on the opposite site, the KL-bound direction is where the super-link and semi-detached homes are located. Altogether, there are 126 acres of freehold land to work with here, with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of over RM800million. This represents a huge financial investment for the development, but it also represents a massive opportunity to turn this piece of forested area into the premier upmarket district with its distinct style in the Cheras and Sg. Long area, and in the process, propelling the company into the big leagues with the potential financial rewards.

There are many ways to get to the development, and you can see that from the location map. But the way that we chose from the straight way from Mines Resort straight on the complete Kajang-SILK highway, turning off before the toll plaza. The turn off is a little obscure, so you need to watch out for it carefully, or else it will be a costly mistake to the toll. There are entrances from both sides of the highway, both also just before the toll booths.

The site is quite hilly, but over the course of more than a year, they have done extensive earthworks and infrastructure works at the site to the current platform level, and the construction of the homes can proceed henceforth. The infrastructure work also involved an underpass under the highway linking the two parcels of land on either side. The site is at the edge of Bandar Baru Sungai Long, and further beyond it is still undeveloped, so for a few years you can still enjoy relative peace and a good view around here. But of course, there is the highway, and with success of this development will most definitely bring other follow on project by other developers, especially when the infrastructure and amenities are in place. But we would think this would not happen for at least 2 years after the completion of the pilot phase.

Lum Chang has gone for the upmarket niche market – no medium cost, no apartments, no linkhomes. All upmarket designs and certainly upmarket tastes. There are altogether just over 600 homes here, which is very low density considering the massive land available, so they have taken great pains and a little sacrifice to make it exclusive, in an effort to maintain the image and prestige of each home here. In their masterplan, they have 66 super links, 308 semi-detached villas and 229 bungalows.

At the moment, the phases open for sale is Phase1A Palmyra, a superlink home series, and Phase 1B Areca, a semi-detached phase. When we viewed the site, only the Palmyra show unit was ready for viewing, the Areca show house was a few weeks away from completion.

Palmyra is a two-storey superlink home on a 26’ x 80’ plot, with the build-up from 2,827 to 3,423sq.ft. The larger build-up are for the corner units with additional space at the side. For the intermediate unit, it felt pretty cramped on our first impression upon entering the unit, even though it was in the excess of 2,800sq.ft. It took us awhile to figure out why, it was because of a few factors, like the large space allocated by the dry and wet kitchen plus the maid’s room. Then there is also a courtyard in the unit, which I think will most people will renovate it to make the dining are bigger. The other thing was that the staircase dominated the view in the living room, and the brickwall balustrade gives a hefty look to it, there is no escaping it when you first enter the home.

The first floor has a very narrow walkway linking all the rooms, just enough for one person, and this adds to the perception of crampness, although all the rooms have much larger space and intelligent design. The reason for the perception is the void over the courtyard, which actually gives a view to the higher floor.

For Areca, the semi-D unit, it has the same look and feel to it, but of course much more space, with the build-up at 3,600sq.ft. onwards.

From these two unit types, we would say they’ve taken a calculated decision to go a different route for the layout design, something which is very different from the prevailing design norm of the competition. We think it is good, certain people may prefer the open concept of more usable space, but this is entirely down to personal tastes.

Besides being gated and guarded, there is also a clubhouse with an infinity pool, wading and children’s pool, water features, food and beverage outlets, convenience centre, reading room, sauna and jacuzzi, poolside cafe and sports facilities. When you have ample land to work with, you don’t need to skimp on these facilities, that’s where they have to edge to other landlocked development. About 7 acres of the development will be turned into woodland with jungle trekking activities and an observation deck mounted on the highest point where one can have a breathtaking view of the surroundings.

Palmyra starts at RM565k, while the bigger Areca starts from RM900k.

Do we like it? Yes we do, and the price, although hefty, is well justified. We see it as an opportunity to grab the pilot phase of a development that has great potential to be successful, future phases will definitely have a premium attached to it, as with any other projects of this scale. We are not crazy about the location, but you can find this kind of land anywhere within the city, but you can easily go onto the highway. We are not fully sold on the internal layout design, but as we said, personal preferences.

Having said that, we are looking forward to see the future phases that will be gradually launched in the near future.

Lum Chang has been long in the business, they are embarking on a new phase of business rebranding. This project represents a new direction of upmarket niche homes for them. Interesting thing to note – all the phases in this project are acrostically named to form the words ‘Twin Palm’. Early next year Lum Chang will be launching Twin Palms Kemensah, another project with an almost similar theme near Kemensah Heights in Ulu Kelang.