Updated: Fairlane Residence

Finally, I've got the time to sit down and write about Fairlane Residence. This building is located behind Lot 10 and it literally wraps around the adjacent hotel. There are 2 entrances to this building, depending on the location of your unit. If you get the main entrance, it is actually quite a grand lobby adorned with lots of glass and marble, although small.

It seems the developer has tried very hard to squeeze as many units as they can into the building and as a result, you either get those with nice views or you are facing the carpark of Park Royal hotel or the back wall of the adjacent hotel. As you can see from the picture below, it's hardly 20 feet and very little natural light trickles down especially to the lower floors.

However, most units face the low lying shop houses of Bukit Bintang and some even get a KLCC view.

But unfortunately, the way they cram the units into each floor and due to the extremely narrow parcel of land, this 2 bedroom unit I saw does not have the best of any layouts. Probably suitable for short term stays, like a hotel but for anyone to stay here for longer term would be harrowing. It is extremely cramped for a start. This 2 bedroom unit is just 670sf.

As you can see from the above picture, this owner does not seem to care about furnishing.... The back room and bathroom has no natural light.

And despite this beautiful kitchen, I don't see how one can do any cooking without oiling the whole house.

This is an intermediate units and most units are intermediates. With the L shape of the building wrapping the adjacent hotel, there are only 3 corners. I can probably imagine the cost would be high for these. The intermediate units are going for at least RM1000psf with each unit averaging 500 - 600sf.

Due to the lack of space, the facilities are quite generous although the swimming pool is very small. The pool is located at the top of the building and one has to climb quite a number of steps to get there. But once you get there, it seems like a very nice place to catch a tan and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

There is also a play room for you to dump your kids while you go off to work. Truly the place for working couples.

Sweat before, in between or after work...
And a business center if you wish to work from home...

So, in all I sum that the Fairlane Residence is the kind of project for investors who would like to go for short term tenants. This means a high turnover of tenants and a mecca for estate agents. This also means higher rental. Typically, a 1-bedroom unit in the high end marker would be going for RM3500 to RM4500/month. So, with short term stayers, one would be able to expect even up to RM6000/month or RM1500/week and RM200/day. The location and facilities would attract high volumes of tourists and business tenants; hopefully would reduce the vacant period of the units. KL is seeing longer and longer vacant periods for the luxury market.

But unfortunately for investors, the entry cost is high judging from the unwillingness of the owners to release their units below RM1000psf.... maybe if we suddenly take a turn for the worse but there won't be many buyers then, would there? This is also a commercial title with high utility rates, the maintenance fee is RM0.60psf and no parking is provided. One have to rent the parking from the management and at the time of visit, the management has not decided on the parking rate but they are looking at around RM200/month. So, with a typical 600sf unit, your maintenance fee + parking would come up to RM560/month.

The Bukit Bintang monorail is steps away. Although one would argue that most of these kind of tenants don't have cars to park, I would rule out this kind of investment... because I don't want to rule out the percentage of tenants who have cars and want a car park at the time when tenants are hard to come by...