Property Malaysia

This particular article in Star Metro a few days ago about Paramount View condominium. (You can read the original review for Paramount View Condo here post in May 2007).

Original the access road to the condo was supposed to be at Jalan SS1/25, but after protests from the residents, the location was moved to Jalan SS1/26. This has now been faced by more protests,

Dispute over roads to condominium

According to the article,

Datuk Dr Wong Sai Hou, adviser of the Unified Coalition of Residents (Ucor) Petaling Jaya, said that it was unbelievable that the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) could approve a 12.2m two-lane road to be constructed across the TNB reserve land, ploughing through a nursery, parallel to an Indah Water (IWK) plant and joining up with Jalan SS1/26 that is only 7.3m wide.

“Should the new link from the condo to Jalan SS1/26 be allowed, then the queue time backwards to Jalan SS1/36, SS1/25 and SS/18 would be tremendous. The traffic at Sea Park will similarly be affected,” the former Kampung Tunku assemblyman and ex-MBPJ councillor said.

“The drains along Jalan SS1/26 are not uniformly aligned and some portions of the road is narrowed by the drain curbs. The run-off time for rainwater must be calculated as the volume of traffic using Jalan SS1/26, Jalan 21/35 and Jalan 21/27 will be greatly increased and flash flood may become and issue,” Wong said.

He said the original plan of connecting the missing link be­­tween the 12.2m wide Jalan SS1/39 and Jalan 21/1 should be revived.

We noticed we haved wrapped up our recent reviews for a long time, so here are the latest 5 reviews that we did in the past few weeks. As usual the projects review page has been updated.

212.Kiara 9, Mont’Kiara
213.The Zest, Bandar Kinrara
214.Matahari, Laman Rimbunan (Phase 3), Jalan Kepong
215.First Residence, Kepong Baru
216.Pangsapuri Alam Prima, Section 22 Shah Alam

Japan, just like many other developed countries, faces a shortage of land to support the populace. The real estate is prohibitively expensive, and they’ve ingeniously built thin buildings to maximize the space.

More pics from the source here.

For those of you frequenting the elevated stretch of the Elite highway near the CSR factory in Shah Alam, you would notice that recently there has been a spate of newly constructed condominiums coming up on both sides of the road. You can also see this if you travel along the Federal Highway. Some of them of been recently reviewed here on our site like Crosshill Indarisa.

If you notice another almost-completed condo right behind the Carlsberg factory, beside the little river, that’s Pangsapuri Alam Prima. To access the apartment, you have to turn off the main road (Persiaran Jubli Perak). This is the main road that links the ELITE interchange and the Federal Highway, and is very busy most of the time. Part of reason is because of the industrial area here (where CSR is located) and also it links to the KTM Komuter station. Some years back it used to also flood in this area whenever it rained, not sure if it is still the case.

Be that as it may, because of its connectivity this place is slowly becoming the next condo hub due to a number of reasons. Firstly its near Subang, and the connectivity is excellent. Most of the major highways pass by here (Guthrie Corridor Expressway, ELITE, Federal Highway). The other reason is that the entry cost is cheaper. Compared to nearby Subang, that is. The landed development project seem to be situated slightly further away, near NusaRhu or Bukit Bandaraya areas. But the condos are here.

This project is by SPNB, our national housing corporation, wholly owned by the Ministry Finance. This means two things - it should be slightly cheaper than a private developer’s pricing, and its assured not to be abandoned. I mean, its the MoF, isn’t it? Most people are also aware that SPNB has over the years built thousands of affordable houses across the country, you can see a list of it on their website listed below.

Pangsapuri Alam Prima is nearing completion on site, so purchasers don’t have to wait a full 3 years for their unit. Also since this is a SPNB initiative, they are giving some waivers for purchases, check with their personnel for details. This is, then a pretty much a no-frills project, maybe its all a good thing considering our global economy at the moment.

There are 321 units, with 4 types of layout designs to choose from. The two wings of building form an ‘L’, and since all surrounding the condo there arent any highrise, all units have a decent view. Actually there are mainly only 2 units, the other two largest types have very limited numbers (5 and 1 respectively). Type A is at 850sq.ft. and Type B is the smallest at 771sq.ft. Both these types have a 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, plus a balcony. The other two types are Type C (1,725sq.ft.) the largest and Type D (1,621sq.ft.). These two types have 4 + 1 rooms, with three baths. The extra room is a utility room with its own attached bath.

For facilities they have the adequate but minimum of shops, swimming pool, a function hall and playground in addition to the security facilities.

Prices start from from RM143,673 to RM323,836, depending on the unit type. This is from RM180psf, you be hardpressed to find a midcost condo at these rates if it was by a private developer.

We spotted this project’s spanking new sales office on the way somewhere the other day. The project is currently on a soft launch, with the official launch coming soon. So at the moment, some of the information we wanted were a little sketchy, but the projects looked interesting to us.

This is a new condo project located above a two floors of a shopping mall, located in Kepong Baru. If you know where the Public Bank is, its just adjacent to it. The project site (and sales office) is right next to 2 blocks of apartments, one newly completed (hard to miss it) and another one just starting their construction phase. According to the salespeople, previously the land was used for agriculture. On the other side of the project are some single storey terrace homes. This is a matured area of Kepong, the roads here are quite narrow and traffic is usually heavy at peak hours.

But Kepong has many charms and with it being a matured neighbourhood, the demand for condominiums will always be there, with a steady market all around it to make up for the demand.

The strip of land here is a long narrow piece, along Jalan Api-Api. Nearby is the TSI Industrial Park, by the same developer. In the past few years there has been a surge of development in the areas surrounding here, marked mainly by Jusco and Carrefour that is along Jalan Kepong and also some newer commercial and residential areas such as Laman Rimbunan by the Faber Group.

Actually maybe to call this a shopping mall may be a slight misnomer, there are two floors of open ended shops on the ground floor. The there are a few floors of parking levels, on top of which is the podium level with the common facilities for the condo. There are 2 identical blocks of units, there first one is set to be open for launch soon. This is the one nearer to the main road. From what we can observe there 12 floors per block, and 20 units per floor for a block. There are 13 different types of units to choose from, with sizes ranging from 930 to 1400sq.ft. Most of the units have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, except the largest unit types have an additional room making it 4 bedrooms. There is one show unit at the sales gallery, most of these details can be obtained from them.

The units start at about RM220psf, making the cheapest unit at about RM200k onwards. This price can be said to be rather competitive for a location, but having a condo on a shopping mall below may not appeal to many quarters, especially those prefering a more private traditional condominium set-up. But if you are appreciative of the convenience that this location brings, especially proximity to the city centre and its surrounding of a matured township and amenities, plus its pricing, then its worth a look.

The look of the condo isn’t meant to be avant garde or inspiring, the narrow strip of land limits the design option to the linear design chosen here. We think the developer may be right in concentrating the marketing effort on the commercial aspect of the project (the shopping units for sale) to boost the residential units as a result.

On the whole, this project has its strengths, serves as a good entry level for the nearby residents seeking convenience and location.

Blog reader Simon has sent in some excellent pics of The Axis Residences taken recently. The original review posted in October 2005 can be seen here. Make sure to read the active discussions in the comments section there.

This last shot looks like a shot taken from the construction towards KLCC with the view of the surrounding area of Pandan Indah.

Yep, its here again. Details in poster below. Malas nak cakap banyak banyak. See you guys there.

We managed to snapped some progress pics of Villa Manja on our way to Bandar Manjalara recently. It is a high end landed development by Sunway SPK.

Original review can be seen here, posted in January 2008.

This is the entrance leading into the development.

The roundabout and park at the centre.

The show unit

Units under construction.

It’s been awhile since we’ve done a review here, so we’re back with the latest phase of Laman Rimbunan.

Jalan Kepong and the Kepong has gone through some changes and development in past few years, mainly moving into newer areas away from the more congested and matured areas like Kepong Baru. Laman Rimbunan has actually been under development for a few years, the first 2 phases of has already been handed over.

The development is conveniently situated beside the main road of Jalan Kepong, just further up from the Jusco and Carrefour interchange, next to the Metro Perdana commercial area. If you drive along the road towards Jalan Ipoh you can see the Laman Rimbunan.The development is located on a ‘C’ shaped land, with landed residential units situated further in the plot. The first phase consists of shoplots fronting the main road and 3 storey linkhouses which are currently occupied. There is also a block of 19 storey low cost apartments with 360 units just behind the shoplots.

Location is of course, excellent, they can easily target nearby residents who are looking to upgrade to bigger homes. Its near the city centre and well connected, residents here should also be quite used to the heavy peak hour traffic anyway. The proximity of the new hypermarkets and shopping malls will add another dimension to the appeal.

(the lake behind Laman Rimbunan)

The current launch is Phase 3 (also called Matahari) which also a three storey link house quite similar to the earlier launches. Altogether they are developing 193 units here for this phase alone, with one typical layout.

(completed earlier phase)

Phase 3 is laid out in 3 rows of units on a narrow strip of land, units are either facing the lake (but line of sight is obstructed) or units facing KL city.The standard unit type is on a 22′ x 75′ plot, corner units have a marginally larger plot size. These units are not 2 and a half storeys, they are a almost full 3 storeys, something not as common as the former. The build-up, then is naturally larger, at 3,025sq.ft. minimum. While most 3 storey units on a small plot size then to have a narrow and high looking facade, here the architectural features are soften and it looks quite well done. Unfortunately we felt the double levels of balconies for the corner units looked odd, they should have omitted the one on the highest floor. The timber fascia boards and gable ends are nice, too.

(actual show unit)

Internally, they have 6 rooms and 6 baths, with a maid’s room at the ground floor rear. The topmost floor is taken up entirely by an ensuite masterbedroom, or it can also be used as a family room. The other masterbedroom at the 1st floor is pretty small, and so is the attached bath here. In fact its almost the same size as the other attached baths in the house. The porch is an RC flat roof. Above that, both master bedrooms have a miniscule balcony at the front, maybe they should have eliminated it and made the room itself slightly bigger.

(access road to residential units)

22′ x 75′ is always a small plot size for anything larger than a double storey link home. We would have prefered to have a slightly larger plot size and slightly fewer units, or at least a different type with larger buildup of unit as an alternative to this standard unit. Pricing start at slightly over half a million onwards. At the moment, the sales are offering some freebies and incentives for buyers.

Faber has a sizeable land here (over 100 acres) and it seems the development will sustain them for many more years here. They have a decent project with lots of things going for them here, as we have mentioned above - good location, sizable plot with lots of potential to work with here and decent internal design (could be better, but no big complaints).

(units under construction)

This project is a JV development between Faber Development Holdings (a subsidiary of the Faber Group) and Cekap Corporation Bhd (a member of the Metro Kajang Group). Faber in turn, are a member of the UEM group and has been involved in various projects since the 60’s. You can check out some of their past projects here. Metro Kajang is a developer / contractor that is involved in many projects across the Klang Valley.