Property Malaysia

Well, we gotta be honest, we haven’t been to Selayang in quite awhile, and even before that we haven’t really had the chance to explore Selayang all that much. Most people are most familiar with Selayang wholesale market and the landmark Makro hypermarket (now Tesco Extra) at the MRR2 intersection. And some people may also be familiar with the hot springs here. Its is near this hot spring that the latest condominium in Selayang is located.

To find this place, you don’t need to go deep into Selayang. It is off Jalan Ipoh, you need to take the interchange exit going towards FRIM. Once on the slip road you immediately have to turn off road on the left, into the carpark for the hot springs. Selayang Springs is actually located right beside the elevated interchange, on an existing green area that has been there for quite sometime. While being next to the highway and interchange makes it good from the viewpoint of accessibility and visibility, it does pose some problems for their access. First off we’re not sure its a good idea (if it is even possible) to have the entrance off a highway exit ramp. Secondly, the proposed road leading to the condo (once you turn off the slip road) is now shared with the carpark for the hot springs, and according to the sales people they are under negotiations with the local council to work this problem out. Either way, it doesn’t work in favour of the condo, there simply isn’t enough space to make two separate access roads, and if they share the entrance, it will not bode well for the condo. But that aside, the solution may be awhile coming as negotiations with the authorities on matters like these usually take a long time.

But putting that aside, let’s look at the condo. This is a massive condo project as it consist of 5 towers altogether with over 1100 units when completed. At the moment they have launched the first block of units to a pretty good take up rate. They are also gearing up to launch the second block (called ‘Cedar’) in a couple of weeks. For the first phase, the size of units range from 930 to 1,320sq.ft. mostly with 3 rooms and 2 baths. Because of the different alignment of the building, you can have a choice of KL view, Genting view or forest view from your unit. But because the area surrounding the condo is mostly landed development, you’ll have a pleasant view anywhere you look. There are 16 units per floor. For this first phase prices begin from RM185k for the sub 1000sq.ft units and RM250k onwards for the larger ones.

There are about 20 floors of units for each tower, making each tower having about 300 units in total. All parking is on elevated floors, except one sub-basement level. Actually this plot of land sits on a terrain that is undulating, so you might want to study the location of the tower you are purchasing into if you are concern with these issues.

Looking forward to the soon to be launched second phase, they are introducing even smaller studio apartments into the mix to broaden the appeal. From what we can observe there aree units in the 587 to 762sq.ft. range, which will appeal to the mobile yuppie crowd. But whether this will work in an area like Selayang will depend o the pricing and design. The larger units should be similar to the earlier phase.

For the later phases, not much details are available, certainly they will review the unit numbers and sizes to meet the expected demand of the buyers as and when they are launched. But certainly the pricing will be on the increasing scale, as with any other development.

The smaller units come with one parking bay, while the rest come with 2. We were told that most of the facilities will be completed together with the first two phases. There are two pools and the usual number of amenities for a project of this size. the entrance has a circular fountain area that looks impressive. There will also be a double storey clubhouse.

As we said earlier, Selayang Springs is a massive project. With so many units and unit types available, the appeal is varied and may be quite successful in their marketing, but lacks the low density appeal that others offer. And as we mention earlier, problems with the access in the future will be a factor.

This project is developed by the Masa Group. From what we can remember they were previously a contractor group and this represents their first foray into development.