231TR

231TR is now completed and delivered to owners. That's an additional 190+ units added into the KL property market, mind you. I have learnt through several blogs and forums that majority of purchasers here are investors and many of them speculators who took up more than 1 unit. There is even a forum with a very dominant member who happens to be related to the developer of 231TR, Urban Delta. There are many postings in this forum which are posted in order to pad up the value of this development but when one investigates the details, finds that many of them are untrue or partially true. A bit like "frying the stock market". I've actually been banned from this forum for questioning too much... which is quite amusing...

Anyway, I made a visit to 231TR recently after having received a letter to collect my keys. Much to my disappointment, I did not realize that one needs to make a prior appointment to collect the keys from the developer's office instead of the site. However, the site manager was very kind to show me around the site and allowed me to take some pictures.

I was greeted by this large lobby which at my first impression, was rather disappointing. 231TR need to compete directly with Bintang Goldhill and the low ceiling and cheap granite material used and layout of the lobby is not really up to the grade. Let's hope the decorations will be better especially with the participation of a relatively unknown serviced apartment group and hopefully 231TR will be able to attract a good tenant for their lobby retail outlet.

Nothing is more disappointing than the lift lobby below. One has to really search for it hidden at the left hand side of the entrance. The door that leads to it is similar to the one for other rooms such as the telecoms room. It is also unusually narrow for a lift lobby and I come to wonder how we are going to move some larger furniture items. Another one mark down for the developer...

Without sounding repetitive (as I have mentioned twice before in this blog)... I wonder how 3 lifts are going to service more than 190 units of apartments.

Perhaps the most distingushable feature of 231TR is the center part of the inner court that looks down to the jacuzzi and swimming pool. This feature allows natural light to come down into the inner court but due to the high density of units, one might be excused to have this low cost flat feeling about the place.

In my opinion, the 2 bedroom corner unit type B has the best layout among all. It is extremely functional and spacious despite the small 834sf size.

As in almost all my apartment purchases, the expectation from viewing the show unit always let me down. But nothing more than 231TR. The unit comes with free built-in kitchen and bedroom cabinets. The quality is extremely poor and always left me calculating how much it would cost me to dismantle the built-ins. The kitchen top is probably the only valuable part of the built-ins - the accessories and the materials are all low cost. This is a completely far cry from the show units. Typical.

The bedroom wardrobe is also not floor to ceiling and the cheap handles make them look really low cost; when of course, they are indeed really low cost. One could have found ways to hide that fact - don't you think? Nevertheless, the engineered hardwood floor is a welcome change against laminated flooring or tiles or carpets in other similar priced development.

It comes with 2 bathrooms. One en-suite in the master bedroom and another one outside. This is a really functional idea. The tempered glass shower screens are nice. However, the little attempt to box up the bathroom sink with marble is pathetically obvious.

The best part is perhaps the large bathroom window and the space behind the door sufficient to fit in a washing machine with a dryer stacked on top. It would not be possible to have anyone peek into your bathroom window as there is no other tall building in the vicinity.

The 2nd bedroom is very small but would fit a small bed and a writing table. I think this is just nice unless you want a bigger family unit. Then you would be better off getting a 3 bedroom unit and the maintenance fee, calculated at RM0.40psf would be higher too.

Type B is a corner unit with breath taking views of the Royal Selangor Golf Club and the KLCC skyline. Despite the road frontage, the noise is surprisingly dimmed. The site manager pointed out that this is due to the sound proofing and the quality glass used for the windows. There is indeed a great difference in the sound level when one opens the windows and when closed.

The living room and kitchen is endowed with imported Iranian marble. But the skirting, as in the bedroom is the same cheap painted wood. Changing the skirting to marble would have made a world of difference at a minimal cost.

Before this, I have always wondered if Type G is a better buy. This bigger 1000sf 2 bedroom unit faces KLCC and has a completely unobstructed view of it due to the low rise Kuwait Embassy down below.

I am so glad not to have made the wrong choice in this unit because of the greatest utter disappointment in the kitchen layout.

As the layout plan above suggests, the kitchen sorts of disappears into a black hole at the back of it. It is extremely dinghy and narrow. The island that sits in the front of the kitchen would obstruct the flow of the unit.

But one can do his cooking with a full view of the twin towers. The window frames are however, a big distraction.

I have also viewed some studio units but found it extremely difficult to take a photos due to the unit sizes. They are so cramped and small.

There are a lot of negative remarks from anti-231TR forumers about the Indonesian embassy which is next door. It is indeed quite close and this would affect units up to the 8th floor. Outside 231TR when one approaches the building, there are traffic cones put out to slow down traffic for the security of the embassy as well as to regulate the queues of Indonesian and other nationalities who come to process their documents. As many people pointed out, this affects 231TR indirectly in a very negative way. But for the moment, nothing more than the construction beside Goldhill Bintang which is extremely noisy in the day time. This would be a temporary distraction, however the Indonesian embassy will be a permanent one.

The 6th floor is the common area. It comes with a swimming pool, jacuzzi, laundrette, games room (?) and a very large gym. The gym is not yet equipped so I am unable to tell if it is going to be any good - I hope so... Again here, the quality of the materials, tiles, finishings etc are more fitting of an old folks home rather than a downtown chic and yuppie apartment. This is regretably so...

Much effort has been taken by the developer Urban Delta to make this their first and successful project. Unfortunately the attention to detail has been lacking or worse, missing. There is also no parking lots allocated and one has to rent it from the management for RM60 per month on top of the RM0.40psf maintenance fees.

Subsale units are being advertised and I do not know if there are any changing hands. Some owners are optimistically asking for RM900psf and up which I think is unjustified. As most buyers, speculators included entered at a low RM500psf to RM600psf, I think this development with its kinks and flaws would do well at below RM800psf.