Sunday, July 1, 2012

Regalia

Mayland's flagship project in the city is finally coming to Vacant Possession. This is long over due as they have been facing many issues with the project, some reported here

Regalia is located at the junction of Jalan Kuching and Jalan Sultan Ismail. It is not quite a junction as the access is not exactly very straight-forward. The current access is a sharp left from Jalan Kuching towards the City, just as you passed the Jalan Tun Razak junction. If you miss this one, especially during peak hours, you are pretty much screwed as you have to go quite a long way via Chow Kit to make a U-turn. 

Mayland is constructing an alternative access which is off the ramp from Jalan Kuching towards Jalan Sultan Ismail (see arrow below).


The ramp takes you directly into the lobby of Regalia.


As with all Mayland's projects, this is yet another trademark pigeon hole, altogether 1100 units arranged in 3 blocks facing a triangle which houses a green garden and swimming pool.

Somehow, reminded me of Hong Kong...

The units facing inside are somewhat quite claustrophobic because of the high density and the tall towers, 37 floors... but Mayland has tried to make it seem as luxurious as they can.



Up above on the 37th floor, they built an infinity pool complete with lounging facilities and steam saunas for men and women. The view up here is quite breath-taking and completed with a conference hall. This is definitely quite a selling point. 


In addition, on the 2 floor lobby facilities deck, they have a mini mart, gym, lobby lounge, cafeteria, swimming and playground facilities.




But I must warn parents that the playground facility pictured above is not safe. The developer should wrap all hard metal surfaces with foam as it is very unstable, kids can fall and really kill themselves!




The swimming pool on the 5th floor deck looks very nice but I wish they do not have balconies on the corner studio units as this will encourage bad people throwing things or themselves into the pool.


Having said that, these studio units - with balcony, 590sf Type A3 still have some units in the market (approximately 3 units left when I wrote this). In my opinion, for any investments close to RM300k to RM350k, these are best buys because they are the only studio units with balconies and only have 32 units in total. Unfortunately, they don't come with car parks and I understand they will be renting out car parks at RM200/month. The only compliment is, the maintenance fees will be relatively low at RM0.35psf. 

Most purchasers prefer units facing KLCC - in Block Milan and parts of block Madison because these views are unlikely to be blocked any time. Those in block Madison and parts of block Melrose facing Kenny hills won't be too great as they also face the busy Jalan Kuching which is quite noisy. Despite the bad access and location of Regalia, the plus points are the relatively close distance to the city center and the developer is also constructing a covered walkway to the KTM and LRT stations.


With 1100 units in the inventory, I understand that only 70% of units have been sold so far. Most of those remaining are quite undesirable as they either have bad layouts like this super huge studio....


or they were facing too close to Villa Putera or Villa Puteri condos, which are really run down...



or most people just do not like how the internal units are just so cramped and close together like living in a communal housing ala Chungking Mansion in Kowloon...



You can also see you neighbour having a bath!

Regalia was launched 4 - 5 years ago and reportedly, many people bought 1st hand at around RM400psf. Today, the prices has risen beyond RM600psf. This is within the expected curve of property appreciation over 4 years but way below the expectations of some buyers who speculate and touting RM1000psf in the online property forums.

Like any high density projects, I do see there are some nice "buy-able" units and indeed some of these have popped back up into the sales board, not mysteriously as I found out that many initial buyers gave up on their purchase due to financial fatique. Some of these are quite nice units and they are still below market price for KL City Center or not so center properties...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sin Leong. How come u can get inside the building before VP? And do you have any info on when we could get the keys?

sinleong said...

sales agents are bringing potential customers in to view. you can contact the developer and pretend to be a buyer. i heard VP may be delayed a bit as there are issues

Anonymous said...

I see. Anyways......You reckon the RM200m refurbishment exercise to be undertaken by Sunway for the mall in 2013 and the river beautification project dubbed "river of life" could likely boost values further for regalia? I heard the going rate is around RM800 psf now. Any views?

Anonymous said...

Not encouraging news to say the least. But do u reckon prices could move higher since sunway is gonna spend around rm 200m to refurbish the mall and the govt is gonna spend to beautify the river with their river of life project? Heard prices are around 800 psf if not mistaken rather than 600 psf.

Anonymous said...

Maryland is well known for poor quality poor maintenance and delays . I m just surprised still many ppl buy and this developer still surviving

mL said...

Hi SinLeong,

Would you mind to recommend the unit you found which is nice and buy-able unit? As I am also looking to grab one unit of this.
Appreciate for your sharing.

Thanks.
Michael.

sinleong said...

It was already sold to one of my friends.... drop me an email i'll let you know if anything else pops up

mL said...

Thanks SinLeong.
May I have your email address?
Thanks.

sinleong said...

hi, it's sinleongng@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

I passby this project when I need to go to the city
From what I see the access or overhead road seems really shoddy and may collapse if a one tonne lorry cross it ..
And it's near the muddy rivers , not good view
Well but for this price and mayland is not top tier developer it's ok for those early buyers
The access road is really funny and can be jam in morning when ppl want to get into kl to work

Anonymous said...

My friend sold 1 unit above 15 floor @ 590 sf with a car park for 440k by an metro home agent.....

I m a real estate agent but u all can always check around , Regalia is a very good price compare with some condo in KL,

yes la workmanship a bit...ahem... :) now he is looking to rent out @ 2k,

Heard already over 5 people tenanted, ya . maybe people wan speculate to bring down the value *no offend* cause now all sky high rocket high.....better buy now :)) he even sold his Waldorf + carpark for RM380k last year,

Happy investing Malaysians ~~~

Cheers

Unknown said...

Hi Sin Leong,

Recently I put a booking deposit for the unit type 1120sf, currently awaiting bank's approval. It is my first property, therefore I'm still fresh about procedures in buying a house, and also risks involved with a not-so-reputable developer.

I have read a lot of negative comments about the project and the developer, but i felt that this place might give good returns when the project is fully operational; especially with the Mall refurbishment, so called River of Life, its location by Kenny Hills & PWTC etc.

I was also a little saddened to learn that the GRR had been removed, but I thought there're other rental options as well. Although the reviews on the service were just terrible! I also found that their TCF has expired and they promised a full CF next month.

Expense:
RM800k after rebate, fully furnished
Valuation Fee

Goal:
Investment + possible own stay in the future
Close to KL Sentral which are accessible through public transport (KTM Putra).
For now, to attract Expatriate tenants, or holiday goers for short term stay

Questions:
Is this a good buy in your opinion, at this price? Or would you recommend other properties? TBH, I'm not in a hurry.
Do you know if we will be charged a commercial tariff (utilities, quit rent & assessment)? I was confused looking at different versions when some agents post it as residential.
What should we look out for / ask the developer when we are going through the SPA?
Have you heard any progress about the closed walkway and other good developments which makes this place a bargain?
How important is it to buy from a reputable developer?
Also anything you feel we should think about when buying this place.

Thanks very much in advance, Sin Leong.

H

sinleong said...

if you are going to spend RM800k for regalia, i think it is too much. to make it viable, you need to be able to rent it out for at least RM5000. so then you have to go ask yourself what can your potential tenants get for a RM5k budget. regalia is also commercial titled and the commercial rates for utilities, quit rent etc are not exempted. i also think you need to be very careful about any promises from this developer, whether it's closed walkway or whatever. even if delivered, it doesn't make the place a bargain.
i have mentioned before that there were interesting units in regalia worth investing in. these were small 500sf studio and 900sf 2br units priced below RM400k and RM550k respectively. if you missed these then it's too bad. there is no perfect property, and the property does not need to be perfect for you to invest in it. just how much you are going to pay for it.

Mavis Ng said...

Hi Sin Leong,

We've bought it for own stay, 805sf at 530k without c/p. We're planning to sell it in 5 years time. What do you think?

Besides, I just get to know it's Commercial Titled, will it affect anything?

Hope to hear from you. Thanks in advance :)

Mavis

sinleong said...

hopefully it will appreciate in 5 years time. this is a good move as you will avoid paying RPGT.
it's commercial titled so this means your rates for everything such as utilities and council tax are higher than residential.... much higher....

kilik18 said...

To Mavis Ng,

Sunway Putra Mall will undergo a major revamp by end of this year. The Mall is said to be upgraded to a lifestyle shopping mall with trendy concept and brands. It synergies with Regalia's market positioning very well as such appreciation value is assured.

http://www.commercialasia.com/news/8183/malaysia-sunway-putra-mall-to-undergo-rm-258-million-revamp


Steven Yap

Cc said...

Hi Sinleong,

I would like to know if it's worth purchasing an one bedroom unit of Regalia at this moment. I found out that a lot of $400k one bedroom units of Regalia available in the market now. It's very tempting since the location is quite good.

At the same time, do you have any good unit to recommend now?

You can contact me through my email - kamyuen.88@gmail.com

Thanks in advanced,
Ck

Unknown said...

I think even though no one has posted anything else since November 2013, it is still good for me to post my experience.

I bought a unit. Nothing but trouble for me after that.
The toilet upstairs leaked into mine. My ceiling was completely damaged. Then the pipe in the wall in the shower had to be fixed bec it leaked.
So I had 2 leaking problems in my toilet.

Yes, I agree that the developer's reputation is poor.
It was hard to fix problems after I took over my apartment.
The main contractor didn't want to make the repairs. Mayland took ages to get ''outside small contractors'' to do the work.
Took a long time to get repairs done.
Main contractor did a shoddy job! NO wonder the KLIA2 is sinking! Haha

There is no PROPER walking access. The road in between the Putera & Puteri condos were FENCED up by them to dis-allow Regalia's use. WHY?
Because when building Regalia, Mayland built on their land. They now want compensation which Mayland is NOT prepared to pay. The ONLY walking access now is along Jalan Kuching in front of the Tenaga power sub-station. The developer built a rough staircase on the slope! It has no handle bars for support & residents climb about 12 feet up & down doing a ''balancing act''.

How can a developer accidentally or knowingly (?) build on a neighbouring condo's land? Impossible for me to understand.
This only adds to their bad reputation.

The ceiling all over the condo are leaking. Just look at the lifts lobbies, the 4th floor ceiling especially near the pool, the gym!
Everywhere holes are cut in the false ceiling to repair.
The chandeliers lights are blown out.
The passenger lifts are used to carry goods, food eg melting ice to the restaurant ''The Hemisphere'' on the 37th floor.
I thought the 37th floor was meant for residents' use. The marketing brochure showed that(promise unfulfilled).
The marketing brochure also showed a ''covered walkway along sungei Gombak to PWTC train station'' (promised unfulfilled).
WHY? because people would have to walk on condo Puteri's land & trespassing!
What kind of developer makes such promises that they CANNOT keep?

Today the JMB (joint management body) is filled with Mayland's Nominees. Rumour is they have 30% unsold units (trying to dump now).
Their nominees run the JMB & the condo only in Mayland's interest.
Anyone who attended the January 2015 Annual Meeting will testify to this!

So buy a unit in Regalia at your own risk.
That's what I want to share with you today.

sinleong said...

Thanks for reviving this post. Yes it's amazing how this developer gets away with all this. Personally I don't touch Mayland's properties anymore

Unknown said...

Hi Sin Leong

Glad you see the 'value-add' in my comments.
Anything that's honest & factual helps others to avoid Mayland's properties.
By the way they changed their name to 'View Esteem'.

Obviously Mayland's management is very poor.
It looks like the owner values money over his reputation.
Or else he would spend money to resolve the dispute with the 2 condos.
If I were that rich, I would value reputation over money; reputation cannot be bought but must be earned.
I cannot understand how Mayland can 'take it' when almost everyone says they are bad ?

My advise is change your reputation, changing company name still comes with it Mayland's bad legacy. People know.

On a different topic.
---------------------
Malaysia should have a fairer policy that can be EASILY TWEAKED as & when the property needs support or cooling down by the government.

Right now the govt uses ''absolute price'' method.
I explain.
Previously foreigners could only buy properties M$500,000 & above.
Then they changed it to M$1 million.
This cuts off foreign buyers who don't want to spend M$1 million.
Demand from foreigners drop for properties under M$1 million.
There are less buyers for properties under M$1 million.

This is a JOLT or JERK to the property markets.

A better way is to impose (as done elsewhere in HK, Singapore), a tax.
Say 20% on the property price on foreigners & allow them to transact whatever property they want.
In times like this when property prices are falling, this tax can be reduced to spur buying.
But when its too hot, raise this tax.

This method ensure ''LIQUIDITY'' remains in the market.
The method of absolute price used now, just pulls the rug from under foreigners.
It seems this run ''counter to Malaysia my 2nd home'' policy.
Here Malaysia wants to encourage foreigners to Malaysia, then after they buy a property, they pull the demand from under them.

I wonder who at Putra Jaya co-ordinates these policies?