Property Malaysia

News has been streaming in via twitter and the online news websites. Part of Jaya Supermarket, a prominent landmark in Section 14 of Petaling Jaya, collapsed earlier this afternoon during demolition works. At least five construction workers are still trapped, with two having been rescued. One body has been recovered.

According to the latest on the Star’s website,

A resident living nearby said he heard trapped workers shouting “Tolong, tolong (Help, help)” for a while, but there now was only silence.

More than 100 rescue workers are on the scene. Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director Soiman Jahid said rescue workers pulled out the first worker at 5:45pm, followed by the second at 6pm.

Both were rushed to Universiti Hospital where they are reportedly in stable condition. Other workers are being examined by several medics on the scene.

At 6:44pm, rescuers pulled out a body of a construction worker, the first confirmed fatality, Soiman said.

“We believe that five more workers are still trapped under the debris, and we’re using tracker dogs to try and trace them,” he said.

The building has six-storeys, including the basement. Most of the workers were on the ground and third floors when the incident, whose cause is currently unknown, occurred.

The collapsed part is at the back of the building. About one-quarter of the building has collapsed, observers say.

At one stage, the remaining part of the building was teetering dangerously, reporters on the scene said, with bits and pieces still falling off.

Looks like there is no end in sight to the dispute over the proposed access road for Paramount View Condo. In the earlier posting here, residents around the condo under construction were protesting on the access road for the condo. (you can read the article here).

Now the protests are going on regarding the new access road which is on TNB reserve land.

Residents protest over access road to be built on TNB land

ABOUT 50 residents from Jalan SS1/26, 28, 30, 32, 34 and Jalan 21/27 in Petaling Jaya gathered to protest against the access road leading to the Paramount View Condominium.

They are concerned about the road that will be built on Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) reserve land which already has high-tension cables and is only 7.3m wide.

The residents claimed that the illegal entrance will cause more congestion to the existing narrow roads in the residential area.

The residents also pointed out that once people started to live in the condominium, traffic and parking congestion will be a daily problem.

According to the SS1/26 pro tem committee member Kok Yoon Lee, the TNB had obtained an injunction preventing the construction of the access road.

He said the developer of the condominium was going to fight the injunction.

“They are going to build it right under the pylons, which is not only unsafe but against the guidelines.

“We have also yet to see the approval for the road, which the developer claims to have obtained from the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ),” he said.

Kok also said the residents were never consulted over the access road.

StarMetro has been highlighting the issues over the 233-unit condominium, which has caused a stir over the placement of access roads leading to the project.

The 15-storey condominium project developed by the Sri Aman Development Sdn Bhd is located at the old squatter area of Taman Aman, near the Paramount Garden LRT station and is near the Section 22 and SS1 residential areas, as well as the Sri Aman Flats.

You can also check out the original review of Paramount View Condominium here.

Here’s something we don’t see or hear about about everyday, but its everywhere around us.

We’re talking about rubbish, or more specifically waste management in commercial areas. Malaysians generate a lot of trash, from households to businesses to construction sites to industrial waste from factories. But today we’re talking about waste disposal from commercial areas. Local councils have tried many different ways to deal with this problem of where tenants should dispose of their rubbish before it is collected by the trucks.

Many years ago, the trend was to have a refuse chamber somewhere in each development - a small room where people throw their trashbags and the trucks will come to collect a few times a week. But this has its obvious problems - delay in collection will result in overflowing rubbish. Then some people will just leave their rubbish near the bins and not in the bins. And no matter how efficient the collection is, the chamber will definitely smell in the Malaysian weather, thereby affecting nearby business. Developers have a hard time finding place for these refuse chambers in their masterplan - nobody wants it near but you can’t live without it.

One particular development that comes to mind that suffers from this system is Saujana Putra in Puchong, the 2 refuse chambers are located at the entrances to the commercial area and the stench is almost unbearable.

Later some local councils opted for the refuse chambers to be at each individual unit, usually at the back so that its easier for the garbage truck to collect. Most older areas of KL practice this. This works well on paper, but in implementation, a few problems arises. One, discriminate parking blocks the backlanes. So the trucks can’t collect. Secondly, this would mean that for the higher floors, the tenants will have to come down and put their rubbish at the refuse chamber - quite a distance if you happen to be the middle unit of a long block. Thirdly in the long run, backlanes become very dirty infested with rats and overflowing rubbish. But its the first reason - trucks unable to enter the backlanes, that is the biggest problem.

So recently, some councils (like MPSJ and MBPJ) has required developers to have the rubbish bins in front of the unit (like in Bandar Puteri). This solves the problem of garbage trucks unable to get to the bins. But businesses are not in favour of this solution - who wants rubbish in front of your shop, especially of your eatery? But it works on different levels too, business are therefore responsible for making sure that rubbish are properly disposed off in the bin.

At the end of the day, any system implemented will have its pros and cons, although some more than others. The bottomline is that Malaysians should learn to reduce their garbage more, and must dispose of it responsibly.

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

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.

And again…

Bank Negara cuts OPR by half percentage point

KUALA LUMPUR: Worried about a growing risk of an economic contraction this year, Bank Negara has cut the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 50 basis points, or half a percentage point, to 2% as the global economy continues to deteriorate.

In a statement yesterday, the central bank announced the statutory reserve requirement (SRR) would also be cut from 2% to 1% from March 1 to reduce the cost to banks.

The ceiling and floor rates of the corridor for the OPR were correspondingly reduced to 2.25% and 1.75% respectively.

Bad news for those looking forward to the earlier proposed LRT extension from Kelana Jaya to Subang Jaya. It has been postponed to at least 2013, which is 4 years from now. From what we have seen this isn’t the first time it has been postponed, the public has certainly been waiting many many years for this to materialize.

This story was carried by the Malay Mail and commented here.

According to the report,

It is learnt that Syarikat Prasarana Nasional Bhd (SBNB), the whollyowned government company (under Ministry of Finance Inc) set up to run key public transport companies, is facing difficulty sourcing the estimated RM5 billion for the 32km project.

The extensions to the existing Kelana Jaya-Gombak and Sri Petaling-Ampang lines were supposed to be ready by 2010, and were later delayed to 2011, the source said.

With the latest developments, the projected 700,000 daily commuters will have to wait till 2013 for the extended network to come on line.

Definitely bad news, especially those of us fed up with the traffic problems of Klang Valley…

We ran this poll for a week from Feb 5 to Feb 12, and asking the question “Do you think neighbourhoods should be allowed to install their own gated & guarded system?”

We managed to get about 200 votes in total, and the results are overwhelmingly ‘Yes’ from our readers, shown below:

YES - 87%
NO - 13%
DON”T KNOW - 0%

It would seem that a lot of people are in favour of neighbourhoods having their own security system if they chose to. We believe most of the local councils in Selangor are pretty supportive of the idea, judging by the number of these enclaves that can be seen in the suburbs. Reader heck also pointed a pertinent issue - that this is closely tied to residents rising concern with crime:

Gated community is the way forward IMO. There are just too many uncertainties and the fact the police are not able to help, further escalate the need for quality gated community.
What I cannot understand is the lack of such development for landed properties. Mega developers such as Sime Darby are still ignorant about gated community except the new USJ Heights.

We tend to think that if developers are generally in favour of doing this for newly launched projects, it is a major selling point, unless they are aiming to cut down project costs and subsequently selling price. By and large most apartment projects have this, even at entry level prices (but of course maintenance over long periods of time is a different story).

There has been a lot of talk in the newspapers about neighbourhoods setting up their own gated and guarded system. These are not newly launched communities, they are existing small neighbourhoods that have installed their own guardhouse, fence, and boom gate to screen through visitors entering their area.

If you drive into certain areas like Bandar Utama, Bandar Puteri Puchong or USJ, you can see this has become very common. On the one hand, owners argue that this has become a necessity to prevent crime in their neighbourhood, and the cost is usually borne by the Resident Association. The local councils and some critics disagree - once infrastructure is handed over to the local council, the roads, drains, parks and playgrounds should be open to public unless it is private property.

What do you think? Should local neighbourhoods be allowed to install their own gated system? Or do you disagree? Please vote and tell us what you think. Poll will run for a week until 12 Feb.

For those who missed it, Bank Negara reduced the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 75 basis points to 2.5%, its single largest cut since the OPR was introduced in April 2004, outlining its growing concern on economic growth.

The ceiling and floor rates of the corridor for the OPR were correspondingly reduced to 2.75% and 2.25% respectively while the statutory reserve requirement (SRR) was also reduced from 3.5% to 2%, effective Feb 1, which was yesterday.

It would also means banks are paying less on the interest rates for fixed deposits (most banks are offering 2.7% for 12 months now), while offering lower base lending rate (BLR) on loans. Frankly lots of people we know have stopped seeing FDs as any sort of viable investment when the interest rate was up at 3.7%, more so now.