Property Malaysia

Gone are the days when Batu Caves was a place far off from the city, best known for the landmark temple and Thaipusam festival. These days, thanks in part to the expanding KL city edges, and the MRR2, Batu Caves is a hub of business and residential activity. It has sort of become that much nearer to Gombak/Melawati on one side, and Selayang / Kepong on the other side, and it has always been seen as an extension to the Jalan Ipoh area.

Many developers have been active here in recent years, and one of them being Sunway. The rapid development is evident as you drive along the elevated stretches of the MRR2, and you can see the new areas are slowly encroaching to form a part of the older, more established areas that once defined Batu Caves.

Impiana Land and Development have launched a mixed development in the area, and Meranti condominium is the first launch from that project. This forms part of their Taman Raintree, and there are some landed units planned in the mix, too. Altogether there are three blocks of condominiums in the project, the other two are named Penaga and Semarak, and are not launched yet.

The location is actually quite attractive for those looking to stay in this area. The actual site is just beside the limestone hills of Batu Caves, just a few minutes off the main road of MRR2. The developers are banking on the completion of a proposed new KTM station here, plus a proposed dedicated flyover connecting to the highway, as part of their marketing plan. The salespeople are expecting the KTM station to be completed in 2009 before the completion of condo. If the infrastructure is successfully completed by KTM on time, it will be a definite boost to the not only the project, but the surrounding areas as well.

Being the first block of units to be open for sale to the public, the units are designed and priced to cater for a wider market appeal. There are 18 floors of units, with 216 units in total. Units either face Batu Caves, or face the faraway Genting Highlands. There three unit types - Type A1 at 926sq.ft. (60 units), Type A at 1,098sq.ft. (84 units) and the largest Type B which is 1,227sq.ft. (with 72 units).

All units come with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, and with a small balcony. They are the ’semi-D’ design, each unit shares a party wall with one other unit. For the largest Type B, the party wall is quite short, and there is slightly more privacy afforded to the living room.

The facilities provided are standard, like swimming pool, security, shops, sauna and steam bath, etc.

Units start from onwards RM145,000, which is about the same as some of the other condominiums offered around this area. With the right unit, you can get a nice ‘green’ view that would not be obstructed. The price is below RM150k, and is definitely accessible to a wider market, especially first time buyers looking to stay in this area.

There is a growing property scene in the Jalan Ipoh area, especially for condos, in the last 2 or 3 years. Previously, the areas surrounding Jalan Ipoh are mainly matured landed homes townships, serving as a fringe area for the city.

Obivously a luxury condo won’t do well in this area, even if it is a low density development. What should work well would be an affordable mid rise one, which gives the residents a choice to buy one here for their children or for investment, not far from where they stay.

CP Group launched their Casa Idaman recently, with exactly the above criteria in mind to make it an attractive prospect. They have priced it at RM190psf onwards, this is far more affordable that other established places like Mont’Kiara and Hartamas. On the location, I think you can’t escape the fact that this is Jalan Ipoh. Surrounding the condo are schools and matured landed development, an army camp, and lots quite aged commercial area. But we were quite pleased with Casa Idaman on the whole.

There are two similar blocks with 304 units each, the two blocks going up to 14 levels, and with two levels of parking on the ground. There are only three types of units available, at 1,007sq.ft., 1,062sq.ft. and 1,181sq.ft. There are no duplex units, and no penthouses either. Type A, the largest unit type, has 4 bedrooms, while the other two types have 3 rooms. The design of the units are quite traditional, and all units come with balconies. From what we understand, the units either face KLCC or Batu Caves.

Aside from the main building tower, there is an annexe for common facilities, like the pool, gym and shops.

The maintenance fee is set at 15sen psf, and they are offering 2 covered parking bays with every unit. Please check with the sales personnel for the latest info.

We like this place. For us, Jalan Ipoh is a great place to stay, mainly for its proximity to KL (only 6km to KLCC) and it is a haven for local food. While the traffic maybe a problem at peak hours, it no worse than any other areas of the city. This is an affordable condo with commendable facilities that is an exciting addition to the area. Some buyers may be concerned with the power cables nearby.

The developer is a subsidiary of the CP Group, a well-established player that has been around for a while. Their flagship is the C P Tower in Section 16, PJ. Currently they are also working on the RM2bil Queensbay project in Penang.

In case you’re wondering, the ‘PT’ in the refers to the lot number given by the Land Office, or Pejabat Tanah (hence the prefix PT). PT19 Residency is a bungalow project located in Bandar Bukit Puchong, right next to the just completed Heron Residency. This phase, by the same developer as the condo, was initially envisioned as a very limited bungalow launch to complement the mid-rise Heron. As we recall during our visit to Heron’s launch in 1995, there was shown only to be 6 units.

While in the interim years, they seem to have acquired more land and have expanded the number of bungalows to first 30, and now they’ve scaled down to 24 numbers only. According to the developers, they have basically provided more garden space to each unit to make to more exclusive, in a manner of speaking.

But enough of the history. Although located beside the older phase of Bandar Bukit Puchong, it is not part of Bukit Hitam’s development. It is beside the LDP, almost to the toll leading to Cyberjaya / Seri Kembangan. Most of the surrounding area here is made of kampung, interspersed by some new linkhouse developments that have come up in recent years.

The 24 units are arranged on two sides of single road, on a very narrow strip of land that looks like about 50m to us. There is a sole entrance and exit, and at the other end there is a small landscaped park. On first impression, the homes look small. This is derived mainly that the footprint is limited to an almost square plot of 45’ x 50’, which only about half of normal plot size for bungalows. Working with the zero lot boundary concept, each unit has 10’ garden space at one side of the house only, and at the back of the house. But the ground floor doesn’t occupy entire footprint, about half of it is used for the driveway, and a small patio to make the garden space larger.

This concept lends a strange effect on the front of the house – the wall of the house (i.e. the dining room) is very close to the road, separated by the drainage reserve and green area. Assuming that the road reserve here is 50’, the distance is still quite near, and that is also no fencing of any kind to act as a sound or safety barrier. But anyway.

For two and a half storey (we’re taking the ground floor to be half a storey), the build-up is 3,529sq.ft.(3,588sq.ft. for some units). This means a rather small living and dining at the ground floor. The first and second floor are almost similar, all in all there are 4 + 1 rooms. First floor has a family area, the second floor has a reading area with a large balcony.

We didn’t really fancy the façade design, with the heavy-handed use of the small glass window. But small footprint presents the biggest problem for us. For us, its not entirely comfortable living so close to the open road, gated homes or not. Working with this limitations, one has to ask whether a small square bungalow which looks more suited to Singapore or Hong Kong was the best development option here. The other concern we have is the ventilation of these units, with such close quarters build. Plus, the strip of bungalows is walled by two condominiums on two sides, blocking natural airflow.

Price starts from about RM650k to RM1.2million.

A few years ago, when you mention the Saujana area, people would most likely first think of Hyatt Saujana, that hotel on the road leading towards the old Subang Airport. In recent years, this area has undergone rapid development, both as a golf resort-centric area, and a luxury home centre that is built around the greenery of the courses. As we mentioned in our earlier review of the nearby Amaya Saujana, the area is still quite low density, considering it is mainly the domain of golf courses there. More recently, there have been quite a number of bungalow projects and also the very prestigious Serai Saujana, while across the road, Sime Darby Properties has been slowly developing their Ara Damansara township.

Both Amaya and Hijauan Saujana can be seen as competing developments, as they were launched within a few months of each other, and in terms of pricing, it can be said to be almost similar. But one look at the overall scheme, the both developments are quite different in concept. Hijauan Saujana, while is considered to be part of the Saujana area, it is actually located on the other side of the NKVE. In order to get here, you need to turn off the old airport road, go through Saujana, and go through a viaduct below the highway. At the moment there is one one lane open, but when in operation there will be two lanes open.

Access then, not so straightforward. While it is located next to the existing landed homes on the Subang side, there won’t be an access road opened that direction. So the condo is sort of caught in a tight spot, right there next to the NKVE.

The land is quite large at 5.5 acres, but because of its triangular shape, with the entrance at the narrow tip, it is limits the possibilities of design in a sense. What they have done is have two long and narrow blocks of units along the border, while the bulk of the space in the center is used for common facilities. This design gives a very interesting block layout - the block is only one unit wide, and each set of double lifts service only two units per floor. This means each unit will have a higher degree of privacy compared to other condos, and you will also enjoy two sides of view for your home, and with the added bonus of double ventilation (not exactly cross ventilation, though).

The northern block has up to 10 units per floor, while the southern block has up to 8, all blocks has up to 11 levels of unit. On the ground floor, in addition to the carparking bays, there is this unique feature not seen anywhere else - each unit gets a small store room. Yep, that’s right, all lined up side by side. We can see the some practicality in it (you don’t have to bring up unnecessary stuff all the way up to your unit) but overall we reckon the space could have been used in a better way. After all the units here are quite big, and storage space may not be an issue, compared to, say, a 700sq.ft. apartment.

Units are either garden view or green view. The standard unit ranges from 1,722sq.ft and 1,830sq.ft, and are quite similar in design. They adhere to a quite elongated ‘L’ layout, mainly due to how the block is set out. There are executive penthouse units available, which are duplexes, and have an additional roof garden level. The typical units have at least 3+1 rooms, and all rooms come with attached bath.

As for facilities, they actually have a large area allocated, but due to the triangular shape, the pool is not very large. But they make up for it with a tennis court, lots of landscaped areas, and a clubhouse with the usual facilities.

On first impressions, we didn’t quite like the facade of the building, it had a look more suited to a low rise building, plus the color of pastel light green-white was an odd choice. But maybe they were going for the ‘golf’ theme there. At 200 units, it isn’t high density, but the location, as we mentioned, may work against its favour. But there aren’t many other condos around here, and they may do well to target the Japanese expatriate market due to the proximity to the international school (the show units were decorated to strains of Japanese flavour).

Price is from about RM600k to RM1.8m. We think it may not be so accessible. But then again this is Saujana. The developer has just complete another project further down the road, Maplewoods, which is an upmarket bungalow development.

The area leading to the old Subang Airport has seen some accelerated development ever since the KLIA took over as the main international airport. In the mid nineties, Peremba were one of the earliest to develop the area between Glenmarie and the Hyatt Saujana along old airport road. The area is still quite low density, considering it is mainly the domain of golf courses there. More recently, there have been quite a number of bungalow projects and also the very prestigious Serai Saujana, while across the road, Sime Darby Properties has been slowly developing their Ara Damansara township.

Malton will be launching a condo project right along the old airport road, quite near the interchange leading to Ara Damansara. With a sizable land made available to them, they are able to have an interestingly design condominium in this rather quiet neighbourhood.

Amaya Saujana is a three blocks of mid-rise condominiums in a sparse piece of land. Each block is almost similar with 10 storeys, the low density being a strong feature here, although we suspect the height restriction due to the proximity to the airport is also taken into account. At the moment they are launching two of the three blocks. All unit face north (towards the old airport road and Ara Damansara) or south towards the Saujana Resort. The southwards units at Block A are the most favorable, as they also face the pool and have also been the most popular.

Speaking of the pool, we were quite impressed by it, and with the facilities in general. About half the available land is used for landscaping and facilities, given it a lush garden feel. Generally the sports and recreation facilities provided here are better than the average, we feel this adds quite a bit to the attraction of the property.

Back to the units. The designers have taken the simple route – there are only two types of units, one at 1,569sq.ft and there’s also a larger 1,808sq.ft. Some blocks have penthouses. Each block has two symmetrical wings, totaling to 10 units per floor. Type A, the one at 1,569sq.ft, are the end units beside which face either east (very good) or west (not so good). The good thing is that these units are stand alone, in the sense that they don’t share any party wall with any other units. Type B (1,808sq.ft.) are corner units with a so-called ‘semi-D’ design.

Both types of units have 3+1 rooms, all rooms have attached baths. We like the large yard area.

Now we come to the price. Not cheap. Type A (1,569sq.ft.) sells from RM501k onwards (from RM319psf) while Type B (1,808sq.ft.) retails from RM605k upwards (from RM334k). If you are looking at a unit at mid height level, it will probably set you back in the region or RM700k to RM800k.

Well, let’s look at the things that we like first. The low density is obviously a plus factor, as with the location. We also like the landscaped design as mentioned earlier. On the flipside, the price is not accessible to most people, and they could have offered more types of layout design encompassing a larger range of build-up. With only two types of layout, they tend to be more conservative to reach a wider appeal.

At the moment, there are not many condos in this area, the more established ones are the older condo developed by Saujana.

Some of you have noticed that there’s been a slight change in the content of the this blog starting sometime towards the end of last month. We’ve done away with a lot of other stuff like property related news and the ilk and are only concentrating on the stuff that matters - reviews, progress photos, and developer / project related stuff.

January is the first full month of this in action, we’ll see how it goes in the short term. There were 4 reviews in January, and one carried over from December. As always, the reviews page has been updated.

Vistaria Residences, Bandar Puchong Jaya

Garnet, Putra Heights (Putra Avenue)
Villa Manja, Damansara
Twins, Damansara Heights
Dhyan Puri

Anyone that stay nearby the hilltop area of Bandar Puchong Jaya would know well enough that IOI have been very busy in the past one year. At the top of the rock mountain, they’ve been chipping away for most of last year, and have completed a spanking new Chinese school (Ladang Harcroft) which was launched at the end of 2007.

Slightly below the school, they’ve also been busy building this brand new phase of luxury superlink homes, and have only just open the phase to purchase in their recent sales launch. Along with the massive earthworks done here, they’ve also constructed an interchange dedicated to this phase and also to ease the traffic coming down the steep incline from the school.

Anyway you look at it, the school is a stroke of genius on the developer’s part. With it, they get brownie points for the community service. And along with it, they increase the value of all the homes around here (including many of the older existing phases) seeing how much purchasers value it.

The developers have also delayed the launch of Vistaria Residences up until now, when the construction of the 79 units are almost nearing completion, to time it right after the launch of the Chinese school as a marketing strategy. It also helps in that buyers can actually see the units when buying, this is a privilege only a financially solid developer can offer, especially when you consider the price of the units on sale here.

Vistaria Residences consists of 3 rows of units terraced down with the highest row furthest in from the entrance. This row commands a RM50k premium for the view, although the row next to the main road has longer backyard for those looking for additional garden space, up to 24′ x 130′. The standard unit is 24′ x 80′ and the corner units offer a wider garden area.

Because of the terraced nature of the platforms here, the units have a steep slope for their garden. There are two types of units here, A and B. Both are two and a half storey units, Type A has a sub-basement half floor while for Type B, the carpark entrace is from the half floor basement at the lowest level. Obviously Type B is located at the highest row, while the rest are Type A. Type B is also smaller (3,002sq.ft.) compared to Type A (3,123sq.ft.). Larger corner units go up to 4,235sq.ft.

Albeit the difference in layout and build up, both types have 5 bedrooms and 4 attached baths. Type A has 3 living lounges while Type B has 2, plus a powder room. Personally we are more partial to Type A, but Type B has its own charm, too. The finishing specs are quite high in line with the price structure, and the facade has this simple, earthy, grey white finish with traditional roof pitching and lines. It’s quite a departure from the overload of hoods and sills and pastel colours of contemporary design that some other developers are pushing recently. The facade looks a bit like a townhouse.

There is a playground on elevated ground, and a linear exercise park, plus the usual security features. The average price for Type A is RM825k while Type B is RM850k. This price range puts it in the category of a semi-D in other development, but Bandar Puchong Jaya is a fully developed and matured township that few others can match, plus there’s also the elevated location and that Chinese school…

Sime Properties recently re-launched their Putra Avenue homes allowing the public to view their recently completed show units. Previously, the site was inaccessible to small vehicles, but now potential buyers can see the actual homes to have a better view of the units. There are five unit types available for sale at the moment, some of them have been open to buyers for quite some time now:

Sapphire
Ruby
Amethyst
Emerald

Garnet is the latest in the series, a 24′ x 75′ linkhome that doesn’t stray too far from the existing formula. It is more of different facade and layout to add to the series of homes available in Putra Avenue as a whole. As a recap, Putra Avenue is the name given to the cluster of phases on the east of the NKVE, differentiated from the rest of the phases in Putra Heights. If you are driving in from the LDP, Putra Avenue is immediately seen on your left.

If you are not familiar with Putra Heights,it is located between Puchong and Shah Alam, just beyond USJ and it’s has really been industriously developed in the last five years. It is inevitable that the development has come to this area, with USJ now being fully developed and all the areas surrounding here are encroaching with new homes and townships.

Seeing Putra Avenue at the site, it is much lower than the the other precincts of Putra Heights, plus there is a mountain with power lines atop overlooking it. In addition to that, this area is also located beside the NKVE, and that too will define the area asa whole.

Garnet consists of 6 parallel rows of homes, with a water retention pond acting as a landscaped park at one corner. The standard unit is about 2,160sq.ft. build-up, but corner and end units have slightly larger designs and plot sizes. The standard features Putra Heights homes are here - alternating types, premium for ‘favourable’ numbers, etc.

The layout is pretty simple this time around. There are three bedrooms upstairs, and a utility room (with minimal ventilation) downstairs. The kitchen is well-sized, and we like the wide gate provided for two side by side parking bays.

The price of unit is from RM393,888 to RM725,888, which is in the same bracket as the other phases.

Sime are a huge property developer in Malaysia, and have many projects in Klang Valley and across the country.

This area has seen remarkable growth in the past two years. While Bandar Sri Damansara has matured into an established neighbourhood along with the older Bandar Manjalara and Kepong, it is the newer Desa Park City (DPC) and Sunway SPK that has raised the profile of this vicinity. Without a doubt DPC has played a huge part in bringing investors’ attention to this previously little-noticed area.

On their part, Sunway SPK has not been watching from the sidelines. They reserved the best plot of land nearest to the LDP for their Sunway SPK Damansara Phase 1 and 2 (reviewed here) which sold well. It provided healthy competition and a viable alternative to DPC’s middle priced range of homes.

Sunway is now tackling a higher bracket of homes with the launch of the semi-D units in Villa Manja, although they call them ‘Twin Villas’. This plot of land is further in the road towards Manjalara, facing DPC, located just between Medan Putra and Menjalara 18 if you are coming from the LDP. The site is a rectangular strip of land parallel to the road, with the existing Manjalara shoplots at the back of the project. The location is quite favorable if you are in the market for a home in the area, the are many easy access roads to come in and out.

Altogether there are 196 units of semi-D units, and with only one type of layout set on a rather generous 45’ x 90’ plot. The build-up is 3,498sq.ft. for the standard unit, which low for such a large plot size due to a few reasons. One of the reasons is that some of the space is used for garden area. There is a garden at the entrance on the ground floor, in addition to the garden space all round the house. There is also a roof garden next to the bath attached to the master bedroom which is one of the features of the unit. Other than that, the unit adheres rather strictly to the rectangular layout, the outside façade is quite tastefully done, with tall windows, and contemporary designed roof. Glass is also a major feature here, with tempered glass used railing for the roof garden and balcony, and also for the stair balustrade. May not be suitable for young children.

Another feature is the gallery are which can act as a family or breakfast area, it is between the living and dining, and looks out to the side lanai, or open terrace. This affords a lot of interior design options, and it is definitely a better option than an open courtyard that we’ve seen in many other projects. However the gallery is proportionately narrow compared to the rest of the house, it gives the impression of being just a walkway to some people. But as we always say, it boils down to personal taste.

Not much to comment here, except that for RM1.8million upwards, you are getting a large home on freehold land. The price is similar to DPC, but the designs are different and potential buyers should view both the see which one they prefer. There are no other facilities in the project aside from the parks and playground, so this is something they lack compared to their nearest competitor. But to counter that, they are packaging lots of freebies with the unit to sweeten the deal for buyers. Please check with the salespeople for further details.

With the high-profile DPC being continually developed across the road, it is definitely going to help with the value of the property in coming years. This project is a joint venture between SPK homes and Sunway City Bhd, both experienced players with many projects across the Klang Valley.

New year, new resolutions, new projects. To kick off 2008, there is Twins at Damansara Heights, a high end condominium development project that has just been launched.

Damansara Heights has become quite a touchy issue of late when it comes to new project. The area is synonymous with rich and famous, along with the surrounding areas like Bukit Bandaraya and Bukit Damansara. The quiet bungalow lifestyle here is a marked difference from the bustling closely built condo scene of Mont’Kiara. So developing any high rise buildings in Damansara Heights is never is easy task, especially when you consider the fact that most of the available land is either on a hill slope, or sensitive areas that may not get through the objection process.

But Twins is on a good location, and on level ground. It is behind Menara Millennium facing Taman Bukit Damansara, surrounded by major roads and highways. Generally the location and proximity to the city is one of the main factors that make Damansara Heights so desirable, and so this is to Twins’ benefit.

The project is actually a joint venture between four parties – The Lion Group, AIG Investments, Koh Maju and Heeton Venture. The latter two are established developers from across the Causeway while the Lion Group are old hands in the Malaysian development scene. The trend of cash-rich Singaporean firms looking to invest in Malaysia continues, probably a testament to their faith in the continued profitability our property industry.

On to the development. On this 0.87 hectare land, they have inevitably gone for the upmarket segment. Way upmarket, we’d say. There are two towers of 36 storeys each, housing 318 units (considering it is surrounded mainly by landed units). The twin towers are angled slightly off the north-south axis, perhaps to avoid any units from facing the setting sun directly. This makes the towers slightly diagonal to the plot of land it sits on, making the placement of outdoor facilities slightly awkward. The plot of land is quite small to start with, so it does not afford the developers much space of landscaping to work with. But they do provide the standard issue of high end condo facilities like swimming pool, playground and Jacuzzi and more.

The towers are a bit like a teardrop in section, giving a knife edge at one corner. The lower floors have 6 units per floor (up to the 14th floor) and beyond that there are five per floor. There are also 9 penthouses per tower, and each penthouse is unique, either a duplex or triplex (including a private roof garden) ranging from 2,171 to 5,261sq.ft. (penthouse). The standard units come in 6 different designs, and ranging from 766 to 2,078sq.ft.

Because of the building shape, the units are odd shaped, some with a curved border. The smallest units are studio units (766sq.ft.) while the largest typical unit 3+1 and comes with 3 balconies.

In summary here’s what we like – there is a good mixture of small and large units, and at about RM850psf., that means the price range starts from the affordable to expensive (price starts from RM700k). The location is, of course, undeniably enviable, so no complaints there, which also means good connectivity. The glass façade looks impressive, perhaps mirroring the trend in HK these days. The developers have a good track record (restructuring due to 1997 financial restructuring notwithstanding) and have financial backing. On the downside – we are not too fond of the building shape, although we must admit that it is a bold design statement. Consequently the unit layout is not as efficient as it can be, due to the non-orthogonal borders, but this, too, is down to personal preference. With the small plot of land, the surrounding outdoor facilities is lacking.

All in all, we’d say it’s a good start to the year.