Under Construction - Pantai Avenue

picture above: Plan of Pantai Avenue Terraced Houses and Semi-Detached Houses
picture above: Pantai Avenue Terraced Houses under construction


Picture above: Entrance to Pantai Avenue on the right at the foot of Pantai Panorama Condominiums

Picture above: The road leading into Pantai Avenue

Picture above: The corner unit of Pantai Avenue Terraced Houses

Ten years ago, with a small budget I went round the city looking for a home to buy. I stumbled across Pantai Panorama. Back then, a 1 bedroom unit approximately 750sf was going for RM160k. You could fetch a rental of RM1k to RM1.2k for a fully furnished unit. Pantai Panorama, situated on a hill overlooking the Federal Highway is an impressive development. It consists of 5 blocks with 2 sets of common facilities which includes swimming pool, gym etc. It was also rumored that Pantai Panorama was the home of the glitteratis of the show business. Despite the majesty, maintenance don't seem to be their forte as even 10 years ago, the facilities seem run down.

Pantai Panorama was also built around the same time as many condominiums in Mont Kiara. While the latter took off in leaps and bounds, Pantai Panorama's value today has not really appreciated much. A glance through the classifieds today have a 1 bedroom unit advertised for RM230k and 2 bedroom for RM260k. The rental also also improved a little between RM1800 to RM2500. So was it worthwhile all these while? No.

Is it location? Mont Kiara loses to Pantai Panorama in terms of public and personal transportation. While Pantai is close to the Universiti Putra LRT station, there is no such proximity for Mont Kiara. Pantai is also adjacent to the Federal Highway and today has a back route out to the NPE. Mont Kiara has good highways but all must pay toll! So, what's wrong with the place? Bukit Pantai may go down in KL's record as probably the best location with the worst prospect. Take Vista Angkasa for example. Vista Angkasa is the "low cost" condominium situated bang beside the LRT station but it's really terrible... I may be able to post some pics later which suggests the symptoms but let us see what words can say for now...

Picture Above: Dedicated TNB power station for Pantai Avenue

Ten years ago, I was put off purchasing a unit at Pantai Panorama because the only entrance and exit to the condominium was sorrounded by squatters. The street was lined with dimly, shanty type hawker stalls. There are also blocks and blocks of very high density low cost flats as your neighbours. Today, the blocks of flats still exists. But the squatters and stalls are gone. There is an attempt now to redevelop the place as a high end yuppie and chic township called Bangsar South (Malaysian developers are so unimaginative and uncreative.... they always borrow names from places that are successful such as the Damansaras, the Subangs, the Desa's, the Mutiaras, the Heights this and heights that and now Bangsar.... despite the fact that Bangsar South is more than 1km across the busy Federal Highway from the real Bangsar).

Picture above: Road leading into Bukit Pantai - the hawker stalls are gone but the flats still there

Anyway, the squatters colony is now making way for a redevelopment and high end developer YTL is also doing something over at their Leasehold parcel of Pantai Hill Park. The access roads have now been repaved and beautified with deadly looking palm trees. Suddenly I am thinking, maybe Pantai Hill and particularly Pantai Panorama may now have a future.

Which brings me to Pantai Avenue. This is a niche development of Semi-detached and terraced houses located at the slope behind Pantai Panorama. Frankly, I like the location and I always liked niche developments. The terrace houses, so-called Super-Links are quite interesting as they are built on a slope, literally supported by stilts. They are 3-storeys. Entrance to the houses are on the 2nd level. So this does not give you the effect of a 3 level house as you only need to go down or up 1 level. The back yard overlooks pure greenery and I suspect will actually stay green as it serves as a buffer zone for the high tension wires approximately 100 meters away (Hmmm... what did I say about high tension wires? Forgotten...).

Picture above: Not so interesting design

At blog time, I was informed that all the terrace houses have been sold out with price tags between RM750k and RM1million! The plus points include the very low density, entrance at the foot of pantai Panorama which means walking distance to the LRT and Bangsar South. There is already a Seven Eleven and Secret Recipe and Old Town Kopitiam is opening. Despite the great location and the very high price tag, I wonder why the design and facade is so like low cost housing. It is in fact, so out of fashion and totally downright drab. This I will list as the greatest disadvantage. While I am not so much a person for status, I question if anyone on the Malaysian Hi-Society list and expats would like to live so close to the flats (Vista Angkasa included!). It is very high density and one would imagine the number of people who would pour out each morning. This will obviously have an impact on rental and sub-sale.

Pictures above: The view of the Bukit Kerinchi "Sky-scrapers" from Pantai Avenue site

Despite the disadvantages, I do feel there is a potential for Pantai Avenue being niche and the oasis in the midst of the desert. However, the price tag for the remaining Semi-Dees could probably come down a little from the RM1.8 million perch. I think buyers would probably need to spend a further few hundred K's to re-do the facade. But I think the developer don't see the urgency to sell as they have probably already made a bundle from the highly marked up terraced houses and sitting on a gold mine which will one day become Bangsar South.

Pictures above: Bangsar South