Damansara

Yes Haruki, you are right... it is Damansara Residence... right in the middle of Damansara, hence the developer's marketing call, it is really Damansara. This is due to every "neighbouring" area, near or far catching on to the name Damansara... we have even Kota Damansara which is more than 12km away. So, developer Glomac has been able to eke out this piece of land which is located between Damansara Kim and the old Desa Kiara condo. So, this is really the heart of Damansara...
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Interestingly, Desa Kiara is located right beside a Muslim graveyard - with full blown view of it. This is quite a popular graveyard with many prominent Muslims buried here. Some years ago, I read that due to the scarcity of plots, this graveyard now employs the double storey burial which means that one gets buried on top of another... sort of like a strata title for the plot...
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Fortunately, Damansara Residence is blocked from the cemetery view by Desa Kiara...

This is a mixed project on commercial land. There are 2 blocks of offices flanking 2 towers of serviced residences, with commercial title. Shockingly, prices are almost RM1 million for a 2-bedroom unit which I've never heard of for this location.

Yet, according to the sales chart, they are almost fully sold now with only the larger units left.

Most popular are the 1000 sf units (plan below), which is an intermediate unit with a dark-window less back part. I suppose these were probably launched earlier on at a lower price circa RM600k to RM700k hence the popularity. Usually, this is not an indication of popularity as they are normally snapped up by the developer's staffs or directors at a special discount. They'll later flog them at "market price" upon VP...

There are 6 units per floor, served by 4 lifts as per layout below. And as you can see, probably not so clearly, the Type-A are squashed in the middle between the Type-B and C, which in my opinion are probably a better buy considering the corner layout.

But who would want to rent a serviced apartment in the middle of Damansara, going at a price of RM1m, which means the rental would be no less than RM6000/month. Glomac thinks it will be a snatch. There will be offices and a shopping mall within the project. They are even moving their corporate office to this location. Well, not so smart to publicise that since Glomac employees are mainly local, so where are the expat tenants going to be from? Judging from other Glomac projects, they have not really been very succesful at making office complexes or even shopping malls successful... take Kelana Center Point for example. Other Glomac projects may boast a better occupancy rate but I won't rate any of their office complexes as any where near grade B... even C...

The shopping mall will have some interesting lots starting from 1000sf up for grabs at a starting price from RM2mill upwards... again, I am sceptical about the tenancy. Malls with individually owned lots tend to be quite haphazard with bad tenancy mix... case examples are Berjaya Times Square and Summit USJ. Desperate owners then turn to Sg Wang plaza bazaar type tenants and dodgy massage outlets. So we can really see where this is heading to.

So, despite the Damansara address and the resort-like facility of the "luxurious" serviced apartments, I am really not convinced this would make a good investment. There are more interesting projects on the other side of the Sprint highway with SS2 mall and Tropicana City Mall and projects such as Ameera Residences and Five Stones...