Monday, September 27, 2010

Student Housing? Broadband Internet is the Answer!

In July this year, just barely 3 months ago, I wrote that Sunway PJS7's Mutiara Perdana is undergoing some kind of a boom. This apartment is located barely 5 minutes walk from the Taylor's College Campus. It was really hard to find any unit to invest in at that time as the demand for student rooms were high. It's September now and I can tell you that there are at least 10 units for sale and 9 rooms or whole apartments for rental.
Although there is a huge shortage of accomodation in Sunway PJS7, students are still shunning Mutiara Perdana. I have learnt that since the last couple of months, many have moved out. Some even prefer to live in PJS9 or PJS10 across the LDP highway.
Why is that?
Reminds me of the time I was in Kota Kinabalu. A friend summoned me to his hotel to help sort out his WiFi internet (Yes, if you guys need help in that area you can call me). The hotel is located right in the middle of the city and should have no problems getting guests as the location is very good. However, his guests would stay for a few hours, find that the internet doesn't work and move out straight after while demanding a refund.

Internet is a necessity these days. It is on par with other utilities such as Electricity, Telephone and Water. Imagine if you have no internet access at your house. For a day or 2 it's OK but if you are living there for a year, it can kill you.

Mutiara Perdana was abandoned by the developer who handed the units over without any sewerage and telephone utilities. The developer went bankrupt shortly after and disappeared. The amazing thing is, the local council MPSJ issued the Certificate of Fitness (CF) - it is obvious there was corruption involved. So, to cut it short, since occupying their units in 2008, there is no telephone. To make it worse, Indah Water Konsortium, the company that handles sewerage refused to take over the sewerage system - the apartment have to repair the system and manage it themselves!

Then, all the vultures start to set in... one TM contractor gave a quote to connect the Telephone risers in each block to the Telekom manhole for RM100k. And miraculously too, despite being located less than 400m from the main gate of Taylors College and the sorrounding upmarket Sunway area, none of the Wireless Internet Service Providers have coverage of Mutiara Perdana. And the signal level of the 3 major 3G broadband companies is miserably low.

I learnt recently that the developer price for each unit was RM95k without car park and RM15k for the car park. At the peak, the owners were even trying to sell at RM220k to RM240k. Last checked that they are now back down to RM180k to RM190k but judging from the number of units for sale, it looks like there is somewhat lack of interests here...

9 comments:

Simon said...

Did you own 1?

Anonymous said...

internet rules

Anonymous said...

Hi, I have bought a unit in PJ8. Can you recommend a contractor for the renovation work???

sinleong said...

my contractor is expensive...

Anonymous said...

so you are using him because of his quality of work?
i spoke to a few contractors... their price ranges a lot and with many hidden costs if i didn't ask in details

sh said...

Sinleong,
interesting blog you have here .. I've been reading your comments from the other forum for quite some time now, your comments are always brutally honest and rather frank most of the time ...

But one thing that intrigues me, is your 'collection of properties' .. you are vested in St Marys, Vipod on one side, and on the opposite spectrum - you have student accomodation in your portfolio as well ..
As a novice, I'm just wondering, how does student accomodation fall into the scheme of things ? yield play ? positive cash flow ?

But wouldn't handling multiple students for some paltry rental, give you more headache versus a small property in the town center which also generates positive cash flow (assuming yields are the same for both)?

Basically, why student accomodation, when you already have various units in the city center ?

thanks.

sinleong said...

students accomodation is easier to manage. they are less demanding and the furnishing/fittings, though i give the best is still cheaper than for expat tenants. the returns are similar, if not better and there is less rental gaps because the demand is very high.

Anonymous said...

How much is the rental for a room or a flat? Yes, nowadays even expats looking for cheap rental. My area understand from an agent ~200k Palm Spring with 1k+ rental, even Korea and Jap tenants also looking for that area. Things are really changing, budget accommodation, travel, food etc may be the trend in future.

Anonymous said...

rooms rent for about 400 to 500 here, of course with bills included and fully furnished. whole apartment is about 1000 to 1200