PJ Sentral Garden City

Come across this property.

First impression: Wao !!! Look so grand, look like another transformation project @PJ.

Still planning stage, mastermind by Gapurna Group. If can execute it right, this will be the new icon in PJ :)

Further news can be found at The Star newspaper


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348 Sentral @ KL Sentral

348 SENTRAL

This property is currently under construction, expected to complete in year 2012. Developed by MRCB Group - The King of KL Sentral.

Consists of two commercial office towers, each 31 and 22 storeys high, a 22-storey serviced residences and a five-storey retail podium.

Good news is part of the office is tenanted by Shell Malaysia. Expect lot of expat from Shell will be move to work here.

Have it launch? Not sure. How to buy? Not sure. Not much news about this project, guess the developer wait for the right time to sell it.


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The Elements @ Ampang

The Elements at popular embassy area, near Jalan Ampang.

Total have 1040 units on 2.6 acres of land, quite high density. Have different types of layout, starting from 610sf - 1460sf. Selling price from RM400,000 onwards. In average about RM700psf.

Consider high end condo, partly furnished with kitchen cabinets, hob and hood, air-conditioning units, hot and cold water system, and fully fitted bathrooms.

Joint developed by Land & General Bhd and Mayland development Sdn Bhd. Location wise claimed to be Jalan Ampang, but actually is at Jalan Ampang Ulu.

Details can be found in The Star. You may register your interest by sending email to sales@land-general.com

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Property 101 - Developer

Human like ranking. Who is the richest man in Malaysia? Which is the best University in the world? Who is the staff of the year in your company?

So do developer ranking, they must be a way to rate and rank property developers in Malaysia. You may rank it yourself, or you may see how other rank them. Example in Malaysia, The Edge every year will come out with the list of top developers in Malaysia. Below are the top 10 developers ranked by The Edge in year 2009.

• Sime Darby Property Bhd
• SP Setia Bhd
• Sunway City Bhd
• IGB Corp Bhd
• Island & Peninsular Sdn Bhd
• IOI Properties Bhd
• Bandar Raya Developments Bhd
• Eastern & Oriental Bhd
• Sunrise Bhd
• Bandar Utama City Corp Sdn Bhd

However as mentioned above, it is important to grade the developer if you would like to success in Property Investment. For example:

1. Innovative Developer

Developer who dare to try new idea, new concept and able to execute it. For example, "Perdana Parkcity Sdn Bhd" who develop the "Desa Park City" is one of the innovative developer who dare to try out new concept and implement it in DPC. Fence-less house, common facility within each "taman", commercial center (waterfront) within the city, "high class" design even though it is just a terrace house.

This type of developer is the one who can double or triple your property value in short time, if they able to execute it.

2. Developer with Master Plan

Developer who build a township, instead of a block of condo, or few rows of terrace house. For example, IGB Corp Bhd who develop the entire Mid Valley City by building one of the hottest shopping center in Malaysia, surrounded with office tower and high rise residential. SP Setia who develop a huge townshop in Shah Alam named Setia Alam, Setia Eco Park and etc. UOA who plan to build Bangsar South City into another new township in KL, consist of retail mall, office towers and high rise residential condo.

As this is huge master plan, the developer must have the capability to deliver it right. Once the entire master plan is implemented, it should be no problem to double your property value in few years time.

3. Developer who piggy back on others

This is the developer who ridding on existing infrastructure at surrounding area. For example, building property near to LRT station, next to existing Shopping Center, or next to Collage and etc. Most of the developers fall under this category. Usually this type of property will not appreciate compare to the first and second type above, as all the existing infrastructure is already in place and usually the developer already factor in the "existing infrastrcuture price" when they launch the property.

So, start to rank your own developer today and it may will help you make better investment decision in future.

Property 101 - Your Right Hand Man - Lawyer

In this world, we cannot survive alone. Whatever we do, one way or other we will need help from other. Same for property investment. You will not able to success without your right hand man, left hand man, right leg man and left leg man.

Let's talk about your right hand man in this article -The Lawyer. The person you must liaise with in your property investment.

1. To purchase a property, you will need S&P lawyer
2. To borrow loan from bank, you need Loan lawyer
3. To sell your property, you may need Lawyer to help you liaise with bank, goverment authority and buyer lawyer.
4. To rent out a house, you may need Lawyer to prepare the rental agreement.

Why You Need A Trusted Lawyer?
1. You need advisor who you can be trust, and he/she is good in legal matter, reason is buy/sell property involve many legal documents and it is hard for normal people like us to understand the legal term by reading it yourself.
2. By assign the task to your trusted lawyer, it will help to speed up the processing time, let me repeat, speed up a lot. Most of the lawyer will take their sweat time to process your document. When you in rushing mode, they are still in relax mode. Worse is you are not able to contact them when you needed.
3. Conventional lawyer will always limit their "scope of work". They will "taichi" back some of the work to you and you sometimes end up dunno how to handle, or no time to handle. Trusted lawyer always walk extra miles and will provide "end-to-end" services.


What Are The Criteria To Be MyTrusted Lawyer?
1. They must reachable when I need to call them.
"Not so good" lawyer is easily spot, they would not answer your call and they will not return your call. You should avoid this type of lawyer as you need to discuss with your lawyer regularly during your buy/sell process.
2. They will advice me "more" than other conventional lawyer do.
"Not so good" lawyer will always explain things in brief, like very rush in time and never explain more than they should do, especially if you did not ask any question.
3. They will offer you VIP rate for their service.
"Not so good" lawyer will always quote you in "high price". Trusted lawyer will give you the best rate without much negotiation required.

As rules of thumb, you need to have at least 2 trusted lawyer who can help you in property investment. Don't believe in monopoly by using only one lawyer, competition always make them improve their service.

Always remember, most of the time, you have the right to choose your own lawyer, especially loan lawyer. And always ask the bank to assign your case to your trusted lawyer.

Lastly, don't be fool by the size of the lawyer firm, it doesn't mean the bigger the better.

Tropicana City @ SS2

Tropicana City Mall - For those live around PJ area, this shopping mall should be a familiar face to you.

Developed by Dijaya Group. Consist of

a) Shopping Mall - Tropicana City Mall

b) Office - Tropicana City Office Tower

c) Apartment - Tropicana City Tropics

The Shopping Mall is completed and launch sometimes last year 2009. While the Office and Apartment are near completion, should be able to handover this year 2010.

During the construction period of this project, I passby this area quite frequently. Everytime I passing by this area, I keep asking how can government approve the poermit to build a shooping mall at this congested area. Without the shopping mall, the road from Sprint Highway towards LDP is already at crawl. And how can this new shopping center compete with One Utama and The Curve?

After completion of Shopping Mall, thing start to get better. New flyover was built to link from Jalan Damansara to the shopping mall. And there is on-going work to enhance access road towards LDP.

For me, I visit this shopping center quite frequently, at least 2-4 times a month. Mainly due to Carrefour, and it is nearby my house and less crowded compare to One Utama.

Ok, enough talk about the Shopping Mall. What I would like to highlight here is the apartment. Launch in year 2006. Consist of Block A and Block B, total 601 units (quite high density). Come with different layout start from 625 sf - 1127 sf. About 14 units per floor per block. Launch price is about RM300 psf. For 625sf unit, it cost about RM190,000. Not cheap at all for 625sf unit in year 2006 !

Do some scan at iProperty, the asking price for this 625sf unit now between RM300,000 - RM360,000 range. Minus all cost, the owner should be able to profit RM 60k-100k. (Not bad for property that is distance away from LRT station)

For those interested in this property, you may want to watch out this project closely. The developer plan to launch Block C sometimes this year, at the proposed location show in the picture. But the price will not be RM300psf anymore, guess it may be at RM500psf +-.

Parklane Kelana Jaya

Saw the banner hang on the roadside near my house today, after googling, notice that is it new project from SIMA Group.



Retail + Office + SOHO, build on the existing 4.5ha of football fields. You may see the news at TheStar

Really can't imagine how is the traffic will be during the construction period and after completion. Today the traffic at this area alredy at chaos, every morning you need around 30 mins just to get into LDP. Imagine if no enhancement on the road system with this new project launch, how will the traffic look like?

Glomac have built many shop in this area, and some of it have completed 2-3 years ago. With another row of shop completed this year. But most of the shop there is EMPTY. I would say is quite nice to live in this area as resident for now, but the shop is really not happenning.

Icon City @ Sungai Way

Do you notice recently the factory at Sungai Way, near the cross junction between LDP Penang Bridge and Federal Highway is being "Demolish"? It is make way for another master plan by Mah Sing - Icon City.

The details news can be view here. And you may register your interest here.



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Malaysia Boleh - Adiva Parkhomes - FIABCI Prix d'Excellence Awards 2010

About FIABCI Award

The FIABCI Prix d’Excellence recognizes the project that best embodies excellence in all the real estate disciplines involved in its creation. It illustrates concretely the FIABCI ideal of ‘providing society with the optimal solution to its property needs’ and even mature projects are eligible.

Awarded by an international panel comprising top real estate professionals and experts, the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence rewards overall merit and not just aesthetics, functionality or size.

You may click link below to view the video.

Adiva Parkhomes, Courtyard Terraces & Apartments, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Damansara Avenue

Another new place with Damansara name tagged with it.


New master plan by TA Global. Consist of Office, SOHO, Retail and Residential. Located along LDP, right after Bandar Sri Damansara and opposite Sunway SPK/Desa Park City.




Go to this website to register if interested.