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Chia bought the house in 2008 for RM740,000

Chia admits he forked out RM600,000 for the renovation, plus another RM250,000 for interior and electronic goods

==> Total 1,590,000 !!!

Parklane Update 2

Recently quite a lot of people talking about this project, in fact few of friends have purchased it. Maybe is time to share some personal view on this project - Parklane.

I got to know about this project early this year through a friend of mine, in which he is follower of Akisama. http://wickinv.blogspot.com/2011/01/oug-park-lane-affordable-condo.html

This is a MEGA project, 4 times the size of Kuchai Avenue. Akisama plan to build 4000++ units of condo at 30 acres land. There will be 11 blocks of tower, to be build by three phases. There is only 1 layout, 950sf. Details can refer here http://www.akisama.com.my/parklane-oug.php

As usual, those who bought the first block have price advantage,Akisama price it at around RM250k+- for inital launch, which is quite attractive entry price. Slowly Akisama increase the condo price at ~RM20k higher for subsequent few block launch. The latest I heard is they are selling it at RM330k+- now, which is about RM80k different for same size condo (but different view).

For this project, Akisama do furnish it with kitchen cabinet, wardrobe, air-conds and heaters. And what impress me also is they also provide 10 ft ceiling height !

I was tempted to buy a unit at that time, however I did not do so as I quite worry about the competition I am going to face when the property complete (2014 and 2015); as there isn't much different between my units and others unit, except the view and purchased price.

Not forgetting there are also stiff competition from nearby condo such as Residence 8, Tiara Mutiara, Sutera Maya, Z Residence, Kiara Residence, Rainz and etc, which add up to around 10,000 units for rent and for sale. Furthermore those others competitors have some upper hand as LRT is just walking distance from their condo, but not for Parklane.

Nevertheless, if you able to buy it at RM300 psf or below, congrats as you have more "playing power" if you plan to rent or sell it in future. While for those who buy for own stay, this location is not bad actually, quite close to Old Klang Road and Puchong. Who knows the government may expand Jalan Puchong like how they expand LDP last time :)

Kuala Lumpur Q1 2011-Economy slows but market remains steady

Kuala Lumpur Q1 2011-Economy slows but market remains steady

• Prime office rents moved upwards slightly in Q1 2011 but continue to be under pressure, with the anticipation of substantial developments in the supply pipeline (When office supply > demands, it may not good choice for investment....)

• There is approximately 13.24 million sq ft of new office space in the pipeline between 2011 and 2014, the majority of which is scheduled for completion in 2012

• The retail market continues to be active but the increase in inflation could dampen consumer spending. Nevertheless, the sector remains optimistic with forecast retail sales growth of 11% in Q1 2011. (Retails and shop lot investment is more attractive compare to office and residential ...)
• The residential sector saw optimism reflected in higher prices, but also caution due to declining affordability. With prices and affordability moving in different directions, the sector may enter into an uncertain patch before settling into a more discernible trend. (Hot area still ok, but those so so area buy selling KLCC price...better stay far far away...)

• With more completions of condominiums in the KLCC area, the situation is turning into a tenant’s market, especially for the larger units (smaller the unit, the better for investment). There is also ample supply of units available in the secondary market with owners now able to transact freely unlike when the projects are under construction. A recent survey of completed projects around the KLCC area revealed that occupancy ranged from a low of about 10% to a high of 80%, with an average of 56%, an issue that investors should be wary of.

Pagoh to be Varsity City - StarProperty.my

Pagoh to be Varsity City - StarProperty.my

This announcement will help to "increase" the property price at Pagoh, same effect like how UTAR help to boost the economy for Kampar.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a hot concept in the corporate world. The main objective is to reduce the company expenditure by reducing the headcount & resources require to keep the business running. Instead of maintain yourself, you may outsource the business operation work to third party company that specialize in the area.

In past few years, I saw quite a number of property developers like to outsourcing the sales & marketing jobs to property agent, especially those small and medium size developers. For example:
1. Pacific Place @ Ara Damansara
2. Element @ Ampang
3. Empire Damansara
4. Empire City
5. Sentul Prime Mall
....

By outsourcing to property agents, the developer do no need to maintain pool of sales and marketing staff to sell their property. In fact, there is a believe that property agent is expert in this area, so it is best to let them handle the sales.

However there are few drawback of this outsourcing concept to the consumer like us, for example

1. I encountered few incidents whereby different agents saying different things about the property. This would happened especially there are few different agents engaged by the developers and information is not flow correctly in between.
2. Usually the developer will engage few property agents to market their products instead of single source. The developer will cut their cake into few pieces and distribute to those agents. Therefore sometimes you may here agent A telling you that's the last unit left for this project, but in fact it is just the last unit left for his/her pool, not the last unit left for the entire projects.
3. As there are third party involve, sometimes the information provided by property agents may not come from the developer, it may be added by the agents. For example, property agent usually will encourage you to place some booking fee to book the unit and claim it is easily refundable without any charges. But things may be different as most of the developers will charge certain admins fees for any purchase cancellation.

Therefore, you may need to take extra precautions when you are dealing with property launch that mainly run by property agents.

Sentul Prime Mall Update 2

Managed to get more information as below:

This project is develop by new developer, but they claim that the director is one of the directors from Platinum Victory group (PV are condo around TAR colleges areas), details can be found here http://www.platinumvictory.com/index.html

Selling Price is around RM300 pft, build up from 800-1000++. Means selling from RM240k onwards.

Location wise is deep inside Sentul, I try to find it this morning but failed (not familiar with Sentul). Based on map, is somewhere here


View Larger Map


The project is not launch yet, but you can place RM5k booking fee to Chester Property Agent, by putting the "Jal & Lim" lawyer firm as cheque recipient, then you will entitle for "choosing the unit first" when they launch. The agent claim you can get back your cheque if you would like to cancel the deal without any reason require, and no admin fees will be charged.

I am not sure how true the statement above is, but the way they handle it is quite "mystery". I notice quite a numbers of not so well known developers like to "subcon" their projects to agent like Chester Properties, e.g. Pacific Place @ Ara Damansara, Element @ Ampang and now this Sentul projects. What make me more concern is "no official track record" from this brand new developer, eventhough the director have involved in the property industry quite some times, but what we are going to deal with is the company, not the director. Don't forget this is commercial property, which means the S&P agreement will not be standard.

No matter how, RM240k (if they really selling this price) is something worth considering, looking at current market, is not easy to find property with such price for mid range condo/service apartment.

Retaining Wall Fell @ Kuchai Lama

Saw this news in newspaper today, an mud retaining wall fell down after raining, and may cause by nearby construction work...wonder where exactly is this location...

http://www.chinapress.com.my/node/211557

The Whole New World - Post Microsoft Nokia Area

NEW YORK (AP)


Close to oblivion in 1997, Apple is now the world's second-most valuable company, after Exxon Mobil Corp. On April 20, it reported net income of $5.99 billion for the January-to-March period, nearly double that of a year ago. It shipped a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter. Its iPad tablet computers are so popular, the company couldn't make enough.

Apple's ascendancy has produced many losers and a few winners, as underscored over the past two weeks:

-- Microsoft Corp.: loser.

Apple dethroned Microsoft as the world's most valuable technology company a year ago. In its mid-fall report, it surpassed Microsoft in quarterly revenue. In the January-March period this year, it surpassed Microsoft in net income, too.

On Thursday, Microsoft reported that revenue from the Windows operating system declined for the second straight quarter because people are buying fewer Windows computers.

Some prospective buyers are going to Macs instead -- Apple reported that it sold 28 percent more units. Others are going to iPads. Goldman Sachs now believes that more than 30 percent of iPads sold may be replacing PC sales. In the 90s, the trend was the opposite, as Windows PCs were crowding out Macs.

-- Nokia Corp.: loser.

Nokia said this week that it will slash 7,000 jobs through layoffs and outsourcing. It still sells more phones than anyone else, but it's losing share to Apple, especially when it comes to smartphones.

Research firm Strategy Analytics also said revenue from Apple's iPhone sales surpassed that of Nokia's phones in the January-to-March period, as iPhones are much more expensive than the average Nokia phone. That makes Apple the world's largest phone maker by revenue.

To better compete with the iPhone, Nokia is ditching its old Symbian software and adopting Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. But the transition will take time; the first Windows-powered Nokia phones aren't expected until late 2011 or early 2012.

-- Research In Motion Ltd.: loser.

The maker of the BlackBerry is in a predicament that's similar to Nokia's. RIM warned Thursday that net income, revenue and unit sales for the quarter ending in May will come in below its previous forecast.

The company's high-end phones are looking old compared with the iPhone and ones running Google Inc.'s Android software. They aren't selling as well as the company expected.

RIM promised investors that new phones with revamped software will bring sales roaring back in the latter half of the year, but investors are skeptical, sending RIM's stock down Friday.

-- HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.: winners, indirectly.

Although all three companies compete with Apple's iPhone, they are doing well. Unlike Nokia and RIM, the three are betting on Google's Android system, which comes the closest to mimicking the look, feel and functions of the iPhone.

Motorola Mobility is a shadow of the old Motorola, once the world's second-largest maker of phones. But its focus on Android-powered smartphones is showing signs of success. It reported on Thursday a near-doubling of smartphone sales in the first quarter.

HTC of Taiwan has been making smartphones for a decade, and sales are really taking off with the help of Android. On Friday, it reported selling 9.7 million in the first quarter.

For South Korea's Samsung, smartphone sales were a bright spot in the first quarter as overall phone sales declined and other electronics were weak. The company is embroiled in patent litigation with Apple.

-- Verizon Wireless: winner.

The No. 1 U.S. cellphone carrier posted a jump in new contract-signing customers -- the more profitable kind -- after it introduced its version of the iPhone on Feb. 10, which ended AT&T Inc.'s exclusive grip on the device in the U.S.

(Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-juggernaut-sends-apf-1045199122.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=

Facebook Update

Hi All

I have disable the Wick Talk - The Blog Facebook Pages. Instead, you may add me as friends if you would like to get update on the posting via facebook. Just search for "Wick Man" with identity below

Thanks

Wick Talk

Worth A Look: Sentul Prime Mall

Saw this posting in property forum recently, haven't been to the site and not much info on this property yet, but looking at the price, is worth spend time to look into this.

This is what posted in the net.

Property Details:
1. Project type: Mixed Development
2. Title: Commercial
3. Tenure: Leasehold (99 years)
4. Land size: 10 acres (6 blocks)
5. Number of floors: 35 floors (8 units per floor) ==> 6 blocks x 31 floors x 8 units = 1500 units +-
6. Total units (Phase 1): 2xx units
7. Floor Plan: size from 800 to 1000++ sqf
8. Price around RM 300 per sqft
9. 4 storey of commercial shop/retail (Tesco is anchor tenant)
10. Expected to be completed in 3 years upon signing S&P.
11. Right opposite to 1 Sentul Condominium (To be completed by June)

Features and Promotion:
- About 5-6km to KLCity
- Direct access to Duke Highway - 3min
- To Batu Caves - 5min
- To Sentul Pasar - 5min
- Early bird discount (To be confirmed)
- maintenance fees: RM0.20 psf
- Free 1 unit carpark
- Free S&P
- Good for own stay or investment (High appreciation).