Property Malaysia

Huge property launches seem to be getting fewer and fewer these days, maybe its a sign of the market satuaration or the impending economic plateau, but i guess it makes us look forward to each one even more.

In recent weeks, Papillon had their soft launch, and we had the opportunity to view it. First the location - it’s situated on a 4.5 acre piece of land in Taman Desa, between the existing double storey link homes and Old Klang Road. Previously, there were 8 old bungalows, and apparently, some of our friends who lived around this area while they were growing up have fond memories of playing in the green area. Well, now, like most green areas we hold in our memories, they’re going to turn it into a luxury condo.

Driving around Taman Desa, it’s a pretty developed area with a good mix of office buildings, commercial area, and landed homes which currently fetch good returns for the owners in terms of both rentals and resale value (a friend of ours just bought a unit there). Most of the new condos are situated along Old Klang Road (Jalan Kelang Lama) like Saville Residence, so Papillon has the distinction of being one of the few luxury condos in this vicinity.

The land is sizable to build a large condominium, but they’ve opted for a better configuration of medium rise low density. The land is located on a slope facing KL, so perhaps that, too, played a part in deciding the density of the project. At the show gallery, which is situated right in the middle of the project site, they’ve a viewing deck on the roof for you to appreciate the view. We managed to snap some photos while we were there:

Even on the third floor level you can see KLCC, right next to KL Tower in the second and third picture.

There are two similar blocks, both enclosing the common facilities at the podium level. Each level has 8 units, arrange in 4 pairs of semi-D like layout. We definitely can see the merits of this design - they’ve taken full advantage of the space available so that each unit has only one neighbour, so thereby maximizing the window space and giving each unit more privacy.

There are only 3 main types of unit designs available, the standard unit 1,712sq.ft. and 1,784sq.ft. (the latter is about one foot wider in total width) and then there is the smaller (but apparently popular) unit at 1,322sq.ft. and the largest at 2,059sq.ft. It should be noted that all the units have pretty much the same design, the difference is derived mainly from the unit total width. Units come with 2+1, 3+1 or 4+1 rooms, and all rooms have ensuite bathrooms for an added convenience.

As for facilities, they have the usual swimming pool, gymnasium, playground, three tier security, etc.

Price is stiff to say the least. Cheapest unit cost almost RM490,ooo, and the dearest comes close to RM1.8mil. The price per square foot is about RM370psf for the units facing PJ, and for the KL view, you are stumping about RM420psf. It is about the price of Mont’Kiara condos. But the difference here is that there are no smaller or studio units, the smallest unit, as mentioned earlier is at a rather large 1,322sq.ft., hence pumping up the minimum entry price. For the standard 1712 unit at a low level, you’ll be paying an average of about RM800k for the unit.

There are a few reasons that we can identify why the developers feel the pricing is justified. Firstly, its the location and the view. There aren’t any condos of this stature around here, and its situated away from the perpetually busy Old Klang Road. Secondly, the price of real estate, especially the landed homes around here are sky high, almost double to triple of what you’d pay for a condo here. For more than that, this piece of land is also freehold, giving that slight edge over those projects below that are on leasehold land.

We admit that we were quite impressed with the project, but a reality check settled in when we had to do a double take when we saw the price. But we’re thinking the location alone will carry the sales of the project, and also the low density factor of the development (only 225 units) helps a lot.

The project is jointly developed by TNB and Zeus, a subsidiary of Peter’s Group. This is the latter first major project, while TNB has a few high profile projects underway in the city.