UPDATED: Monoland's Quadro @ KLCC

UPDATED 28/8/2010: Suddenly today heard a bombshell... Quadro's title is not residential as Monoland sales people have been promoting for weeks. They now say they have been misinformed. The title is actually commercial!!!! In my opinion, this is not an easy mistake to make. Have we all been misled by Monoland? Or Monoland been misled by the Land Office or City Hall? Surely... when you buy a multi-million ringgit piece of land, you don't make this kind of mistake. So, what's the big deal of buying a residential property that sits on a commercial title? The most tangible is the utilities - water, electricity and sewer are based on commercial rates. The Assessment is based on commercial rates. All of which are much higher than residential rates. The Assessment makes the holding cost much higher but for a million RM property, one might say it's negligible but for the reason it is a million RM property makes the assessment rates even much more higher!

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So, what's my stand on this matter? Well, if I have known from the start that this is sitting on commercial title, I would not have bought - despite the location, layout etc etc. Simple as that... Now, SixCeylon, Verticas Residensi and St.Mary (commercial but residential rates) suddenly overtakes Quadro in terms of attractability.

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Last weekend, Monoland soft launched both their premier projects in the KL city center - Vipod and Quadro. Of the 2, most people tend to be attracted to Vipod, due to the smaller sizes and the affordability. However, since Monoland requires all affordable Vipod small units purchases to be paired with a big one, surely the affordability factor has dissipated... (?)

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Monoland's Quadro features just under 40 floors, with only 7 units per floor. Each floor is served by 8 lifts!! Each unit has their own private lift lobby. Vipod is only slightly less exclusive, with 3 lifts serving 3 or 4 units. However, with the almost identical size of land, Vipod packed 11 units on each floor. So, Quadro has half the density of Vipod. Monoland's insider also informed that they paid more for the Quadro's Persiaran KLCC land compared with Vipod's Kia Peng's address.

Certainly then, the value has to be with Quadro. Interestingly, the price per sf for Quadro is less than Vipod.

picture above: The rendering of the Quadro as seen from Traders Hotel. Many online forumers baulk at the horrific Quadro architecture to be wasted on such a beautiful address.

Monoland positioned their Quadro as the higher end of the two. According to their Sales Agent, Vipod is their product for the "mass market", while Quadro is the exclusive market. It has a more exclusive address in Persiaran KLCC, sharing the same row as Traders Hotel, Menara Exxon-Mobil, Park Seven and Binjai on the Park. Buyers get 2 car parks instead of 1 with Vipod and the title is residential, while Vipod's commercial. The long term maintenance will be a lot different with a residential title.

picture above: The tanga shaped floor plan of the Quadro. Notice that there are 8 lifts serving just 7 units on each floor.

Really forgiven...if the floor plan reminds you of this...

The layout dictates that only 2 units actually get the KLCC view. Both are relatively large units and priced above RM2million at the special Preview launch. The floor layout of the units and designs are not really that interesting except for the Duplex units. The Duplexes face South, which means a Bukit Bintang view or in a few years time, Ireka's condo project... The layout is extremely thoughtful. They have their own lift lobby, just like the other 6 units on the floor. The upper floor has its' own entrance directly into a utility which can also double as a maid's room. So your maid, can have her own entrance!

The lower floor features the adjoining living, dining and dry kitchen. Then, there is also a wet kitchen which really suits our Asian lifestyle and cooking. It's just so thoughtful...

However, the 3 bedrooms upstairs are a bit crammed. Monoland should have just done with 2 large bedrooms, rather than packing three in...

Duplexes generally do very well in the expat high-end tenancy market. This one is a little revolutionary because it is the only small sized residential Duplex in the KL city center. Everything else from Somerset's penthouses, to Binjai on the Park, OneKL, Dua Residency and Park Seven are large units from 2500sf and up. Quadro's duplex is only 1500sf. The fact that Quadro only offers 16 Duplex units mean that they will be in great demand!

pictures above and below: The Quadro is bordered by Jalan Kia Peng and Persiaran KLCC and the access to the site is via the more prestigious of the 2 addresses. Picture below shows the site as seen from Traders hotel.

It has to be also noted that the road access to Quadro is a dual-way - both Persiaran KLCC and Jalan Kia Peng. The Vipod's access road is a one-way stretch of Jalan Kia Peng. That's a huge difference. And comparing the 2, Quadro's access road is seldom jammed.

The googlemap picture above showing the entrance to the Quadro via Persiaran KLCC (in red), also shared with Menara Exxon Mobil to the north of Quadro and Traders hotel (north West, diagonally across)

pictures above and below: The roof top plan at the Quadro with the infinity swimming pool below

The land however is still tiny. But not much difference from OneKL's. So, they have to pack all the facilities onto the roof deck.

One huge concern I have about Monoland is their maintenance background. Although they have a slew of high end portfolios and references, their track record in managing their 2 hotels, Northam and Gurney in Penang has not been very good. They still have a long way before they get to likes of being truly 5-star. The fate of Quadro lies in this.