Property Malaysia

To all our Hindu readers, Happy Deepavali!

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. The roads are still busy today, so I guess most city folks did not go outstation. To those travelling, drive safely, and enjoy yourselves.

We’ve just entered the last quarter of 2008, and another quarter, another Bandar Puteri launch. If you live far away from Puchong and have no interest in property happenings there, this won’t mean much. If you ARE looking for a property in this area, and have plenty of money to spend on a linkhome, then this will be right up your alley.

First some order of business. We have reviewed quite of few of the latest phases in Bandar Puteri (there have been quite a few) and most of them are listed at the end of this article. We have also put a link to the development review of Bandar Puteri as a whole (you can read it here) and it is also listed at the foot of this article. It will mostly give a general idea of the development and our take on the location, quality, accessibility and overall look.

Of late, the launches have been concentrated on the hilltop area, starting from the upmarket Aseana Puteri right up to the more affordable Bayu Puteri at the border with Puchong Hartamas. But this latest launch Serena is located on the lower level at Puteri 6, where the older phases are. The land on which Serena is located has actually been left fallow all this while, obviously they have been waiting for the right moment to launch this phase. This is mainly because Serena differs quite a bit from the phases around it, and with the others that were made available recently.

Serena is targeted at the higher niche market, although the look of the house and its concept is not exactly niche.

Anyway to keep the review short, this is a double storey link home and the corner units are two and a half . The build for these two types of units are 2,430 and 2,990sq.ft. respectively. The standard intermediate unit has 4 bedrooms and 4 baths, so no need to have your kids fighting to use the bathrooms. The corner unit variety has an extra room and attached bath at the topmost floor. The selling point for this phase is the 14 feet high ceiling at ground floor, and 12 feet high at the upper floors. This is of course a strong feature, most homes offer 10 feet or 11 at the very most. The plot size is a minimum of 22′x75′, corner units have a larger plot.

The design is spacious befitting its 2400 plus square footage, and another feature is that there is a courtyard located at the first floor, instead of ground floor where it is commonly done.

There are a limited number of units available, and the pricing start from RM529k onwards. This is significantly higher than the last few launches, although the plot size and build up is the same.

This is the overall development review of Bandar Puteri.
Development Review: Bandar Puteri by IOI Properties

Some of the other current launches reviewed by us here in Property Malaysia are as follows:
Elyssa Villa
Nadia
Eugenia
Lilac (22’ x 75’ linkhouses)
Aseana Puteri (condominiums)
Bayu Puteri (apartments)
Grande View (22’ x 70’ hilltop linkhouses)
Olivia
Primrose
Juniper

What’s the best way to beat the flooding at home? Build a WALKING home. No, seriously, it walks!

Taken from here,

The property has been built on six hydraulic legs and was designed by art collective N55 in Copenhagen, Denmark, who worked in conjunction with engineers in Massachusetts, U.S. The 10ft high home is solar and wind powered and can stroll at walking pace across all terrains. Designers say it provides a solution to the problem of rising water levels as the house can simply walk away from floods.

Like normal homes, it comes equipped with a living room, kitchen, toilet, bed and wood stove.
However, the house can walk thanks to a mainframe computer which controls the legs.
Helen Robinson of the Wysing Arts Centre said; ‘This is far more than a caravan. It’s all about sustainable living - it can sustain a life for many years.

If you have been reading the local business and property tabloids, a few months ago they’ve been touting Jalan Madge as the next hot spot following the spillover effect of the KLCC condo overload. Jalan Madge, off Jalan U-Thant in Ampang, has always been a nice, secluded enclave of bungalows and very low rise apartments, favored by the rich who want easy access to golden triangle, and also expats who want to be near their embassies.

Actually when the publications mention ‘hotspot’, there are only a handful of new but high profile developments in the past year, somehow there is an effort to keep the low density feature of this small neighbourhood, which is commendable.

The projects that we know of in this area is The Katana Residences by a Singaporean developer, Tan & Tan’s U-Thant Residences and Iringan Hijau, The Gallery @ U-Thant (by Nam Fatt Bhd) and another future project by SsangYong, the Korean megacorp that also manufacturers machinery.

The developer for this project is Rodem, a joint venture between two companies - Landlovers (M) Sdn Bhd and Hanil Engineering & Construction Co Ltd of Korea. This plot is located opposite the aforementioned Katana Residences, of land is pretty small, only 0.77acres, so the only real option for them was to build a very small low rise, low density project. Landlovers is the local subsidiary of the another Korean firm, and are directly involved in managing and developing this project.

This plot of land used to be a occupied by a bungalow, those who are familiar with this area will definitely remember it prior to it being earmarked for this condo.

The main selling point of the project is this is a low density, low rise, and exclusive. There are two blocks, up to five storey only plus two levels of basement parking, and it houses a modest 23 units only. The layout is such that there is a common lobby shared by the two blocks of units. With the restriction of space, they still managed to fit a 25-metre lap pool and a children’s pool within a central courtyard, plus some landscaped gardens. All units generally have a good view, looking out into the surrounding homes.

With the low number of units, the designers were free to create units that are spacious and have many different layout designs to appeal to its exclusivity. There are nine layout types available for the single floor units, ranging from 1,888 to 4,242sq. ft., while for the enthouses, they range from 6,036 to a whopping 8,085sq.ft. The penthouse units come with their own self contained private gardens. The single floor units have at least two bedrooms, larger ones have up to 5 bedrooms. Another feature is that the units have exceptionally high ceiling of 3.7metres.

(The marketing folks have kind enough to laod up their promotion video

The price starts from RM2.23mil to RM8mil, selling at an average of about RM800-1500psf. Very expensive? Of course it is. But they aren’t really targeting Malaysians, unlike you’re one of the super-rich looking for a third weekend condo. They’re obviously targeting South Koreans, and with the JV partners based there, they’ll have no problems marketing it there. The attraction is obvious - its so much them cheaper here (for them, not for us), the weather is warmer especially in their winter months, and well, you know the rest.

There will be a minimum of two parking bays per unit, the largest units have up to 6 bays.

From the viewpoint of someone interested in building and homes in general, this is a beautiful project with the creative licence not fettered by cost issues (although space is a slight constraint). But the units are large enough to work some ID magic, and the facade looks great with smart combination of glass windows and earthy coloured walls. Of course we liked it. And of course we can’t afford to buy even the guardhouse.

This is the developer’s first project here in Malaysia. However both partners are experienced developers in S. Korea.

Another hillside project has been made the headlines two days ago, this time in Persiaran Meranti Hill in Bandar Sri Damansara, Petaling Jaya. It has come under heavy opposition of the nearby residents, who highlighted the following details about the proposed project:

• Involves 15 blocks, some as high as 52 storeys (42 storeys of residential units and 10 storeys of car parks),
• Parts of the hill fall under Class 3 and 4, which are slopes over 25°,
• The site of the project is 8.4ha but the project is expected to have 5,300. This will be result in high population density of 128 persons per acre,
• Promotional buntings and brochures state that the residential blocks would be surrounded by recreational attractions such as trekking trails and camp sites.

The residents committee have noted that “the project is estimated to bring 26,500 more residents into Bandar Sri Damansara that already has 9,800 units with 49,000 residents. It has been learnt that they are planning to sell the condo at RM300 per sq ft.” They have roped in help from MBPJ councillor Chan Chee Kong, representatives of Subang MP R. Sivarasa and Bukit Lanjan state assemblyman Elizabeth Wong. Other than their concern on the slope stability and population density, they’ve also voiced concern about the potential impact on traffic and the environment.

As it is, traffic is quite critical during peak hours. since this area also houses Paradesa Rustica and Paradesa Tropica condominiums.

With all the recent cases of hillside development getting negative publicity in the media, things does not look good for the developers. Couple this with the increasingly inclement weather the city is facing, plus the pro-active involvement of the new state government, we think the residents have a strong case in this matter.

(Pics taken from the Star)

Reader Aaron has sent in some recent photos of Menjalara18. Looks like he took it with his phone camera

You can read the original review of the project here, initially posted in October of 2006.

We haven’t really been to Sentul all that often recently, but no doubt there have been quite a few happenings there in terms of property watching. Although not as ‘hot’ as Mont’Kiara or Damansara Somewhere, Sentul is basically an old established neighbourhood that is slowly (but surely) catching up with the times. Some of our associates that have lived and grown up in Sentul can attest to it being a nice place to live, but of course a little bit overcrowded like most parts of KL.

But many people living out Sentul may not know that about a decade ago, there were some big plans by a few developers (YTL and Bintai Kindenko being a couple of them) to carry out large scale development in the area, which includes re-developing old areas and some KTM land. But post-financial crisis (the 1997, not the one we’re facing now) these plans had to been rescaled, and in some cases, scrapped altogether (YTL is one who survived the crunch to launch their masterplan).

These days, smaller developers are working of any available small land in this area, going for condo since most of the plots are that size. 1Sentul is located just along Jalan Sentul, the thoroughfare that has is an integral linkway in the city since the 60’s. It is very near a few well-known schools, folks using this stretch of Jalan Sentul would be well aware of the congestion during school peak hours. The plot of land is right beside the chinese temple and there is also an old wooden house beside it. The sales people have told us that the wooden house will be demolished by another developer who has acquired the land. But of course, there is also a possibility nothing will happen since the developer isn’t the one who owns that piece of land.

The sales people also mentioned the proposed DUKE highway will also benefit the condo since the planned Sentul Pasar interchange is very near here.

Across the road from 1Sentul is the Sri Suajaya which has been around for a good many years. In this area the are quite a few other condos, ranging from the Pelangi condo and Alampuri, to the more upmarket YTL’s Saffron in Sentul East, Casa Idaman and the Rivercity, the latter two located along Jalan Ipoh. Sentul East is not apples to apples comparison here though, that is a massive development with all the features of a mixed development compared to 1Sentul.

But coming back to 1Sentul, there are two identical towers built on a common podium that almost squarish in shape. There are no basement parking floors, from the ground floor up until the 4th floor are parking levels for the tenants. The fifth floor is the where the common facilities are located. With the space constraint of a small land like 1Sentul, it is understandable that the facilities are not extraordinary, only what you would expect fron this price structure.

Each block has 4 wings arranged orthogonally like the points of a compass (but the alignment is slightly off north) and each wing has two conjoined units giving a total of 8 units per floor. This is one of their main selling points - each unit is a so-called “corner unit”. Definitely it has its benefits - more privacy, better ventilation and more window space, and fewer units per floor. There are only two types of units available, and each floor has 4 of each type. The smaller unit is 1,081sq. ft. while the larger is at a generous 2,709sq. ft. Ath 1,081sq.ft. the unit is quite large, and this makes the unit price more substantial due to the price per square foot. They’ve eschewed the idea of providing a few smaller units (usually about 800sq.ft.) on the lower floors to attract entry level purchasers. From this we can see that the target market are family units and investors. Both unit types are quite similar, with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.

Currently the developers are offering 2 parking bays for every unit, and are also throwing in some freebies like kitchen cabinet per unit, but please check with the salespeople for the latest details.

We mentioned the price per square foot earlier, it is at an average of RM280psf. The price of the units start from RM305,800 up to RM903,800, bulked up because of the large build up.

Bottomline - do we like the condo? We okay with it, its more suitable for people looking to stay or invest in the area. Outsiders may not be comfortable with the pricing or surroundings, but its actually a decent buy.

(sorry about the poll in the previous post. Apparently the site is down for a long time… I’ve deleted it and will put it up again using another poll software.

This is a pretty cool apartment, with a one of its kind design.

This apartment block is designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and has the following features:

• over 1000 unique windows,
• individualized handles on windows and doors,
• a living roof, café, parking garage, restaurant, bar, playground, and a running stream.
• 105 apartments.
• 12 storeys at its highest point,
• onion gilded domes placed at random points along the roof,
• multi-colored earth-toned stucco about the façade and the absence of sharp corners and straight lines.

environmentalgraffiti.com describes it as

A ‘green’ roof, including varied plant species, beech, maple and lime trees, a grand selection of deciduous shrubs and a bed of grass, crown this organic architectural masterpiece. And, within the courtyard, a running stream gently trickles through a children’s playground.

Inspiring design, whimsical detail and a sense of responsibility to the environment, the Waldspirale is an enigma in the design world. Hundertwasser’s view on the incorporation of the environment in his design is simply expressed by the artist himself: “If man walks in nature’s midst, then he is nature’s guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest.”

Source

How to save money when building a hut - make it a lean against a rockface. Save half the cost of building materials, plus it looks awesome!!!

This beautifully taken photo is actually taken from here, they have other great shots.

Okay, holiday season over, back to the business as usual.

Last month September we managed to squeeze in 4 reviews listed below. As usual the reviews page has been updated. Go on, then, visit the page if you haven’t been there recently.

201.Juniper, Bandar Puteri Puchong
202.Residency @ Park 51, Petaling Jaya
203.Setia Walk, Pusat Bandar Puchong
204.Royal Regent (Sri Putramas 3), Jalan Kuching

October looks like to be a slow month, with the bad times and year end looming.