Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Empire Damansara in Pictures

The Empire Damansara will become a very happening place in the near future. Developer Mammoth has integrated commercial and residential together with entertainment, F&B and retail in one location. The architecture is certain to appeal to the young and upcoming. 




The shops appear to model after Xintiandi in Shanghai (pic below), which is a neo-colonial style architecture complex housing upmarket and trendy F&B outlets. Xintiandi is immensely popular with expats and locals alike, not to mention tourists.


The flagship development are the 640 units of studios and 700 units of SOHO duplexes (below). They were quickly sold out at launch despite what was reportedly a very extremely lop-sided S&P terms and conditions imposed on buyers.



The rest of the development is well supported by office complexes.





All in a very cooling and green environment. Hopefully it will stay that way with all the development coming into the area.

The studios are now in the sub-sale market at about RM750psf. The SOHOs are a bit more drastic, asking almost RM1000psf. Anyway, comparing the studios at RM750psf, that's about the launch price of the Dorsett Place Waterfront in Subang Jaya. So let's make a blow by blow comparison...

1. Land title - Dorsett's is freehold. Empire Damansara is leasehold 99 years. However, this is probably not so important on strata properties

2. Density - Dorsett's whopping 1900 units completely overcome Empire's studios and sohos combined 1300 units.

3. Location - both are located not too near any proper public transport. Dorsett is some 1.5km away from the KTM and future LRT stations in SS16 while Empire Damansara is also about the same distance from the future MRT at the Curve, Mutiara Damansara. In terms of commercial value of the locations, Dorsett is in a matured neighbourhood, close to private colleges and located right next to a popular medical center and a recreational lake while Empire Damansara is in a young and upcoming precinct with nothing much at the moment.

4. Furnishing - both comes fully furnished with suspect quality but I have reasons to believe that Empire's probably better not because it is going to be better but rather Mayland's will be abysmal in contrast

5. Carpark - Empire offers no car park, just like Dorsett. But at least Mayland sold carparks to the 1st 700 lucky buyers at RM28k per lot.

6. Facilities - Dorsett's facilities are free of charge to residents. If we use the Mammoth's Empire Subang as a gauge, they said they'd build a swimming pool and gym but later leased it to Fitness First who charges residents at least RM150/month to use them!

7. Price and Timing - Price about the same but timing is on Empire's side. Mayland's Dorsett is beset with problems and risk not even taking off. And if it does, it will definitely be late and may take more than 5 years whereas Empire Damansara is soon going to VP end of this year. It has to be noted that Mammoth also initially faced problems getting the Empire Damansara approved but it seems Mayland is going to face a completely impossible situation. I'll have more on this next.

Yes, for those who knows, Mayland's Dorsett may be shelved.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

From outside I saw this unit is very small like pigeon holes
Maybe if there is a room it can only fix a small bed
This is ideal for flipping or singles
To raise a family here would be hazardous with that small space and so many neighbors

Anonymous said...

But the initial buyers already make a fortune if they buy 5 or 10 units and flip them
That time their only concern if this project will be abandoned as mammoth empire is not really spsetia or gamuda
But seems like they can deliver but I would rate mammoth same as mayland - building small units and quality is not too good
The saving grace is this location is good.
Smack in middle of the new golden triangle of PJ
more and more companies are setting up their offices here such as gamuda,klk, and the pioneers like mkland
But ppl will still Buy this smaller unit as they are priced out of the rm 500 k above range but those who buy here are either flippers or lower income buyers

Anonymous said...

I am just a regular Joe and your rational just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I just don't see it.

Anonymous said...

Regular Joe shld remain Joe
Property is not easy to pick at all
U see mammoth recently u did recall their property exploded at subang but nobody died there
In fact now more ppl visiting it -curious about the explosion maybe
Well u can buy in bulk in the early stage some investors have bought to flip this project call empire
To them at that time was really cheap As nobody expect them to deliver but at 150k seems like buying goreng pisang
So now near completion u can sell 300k , u gained 150k without computing ur holding cost. If u have bought 10 units u would have made 1.5 million
There's no short of buyers for these as the surroundings location is good and there isn't gonna be another cheap goreng pisang seller like mammoth or whatever BS they call themselves
The days of cheap property is over

Anonymous said...

I bought my house a landed one at mutiara damansara
Well it's > 1 mil but it's quite good , gated , guarded , and right opposite the curve ie walks from future mrt
Well this location is so good in my opinion as after crossing pencala tunnel it's already mont kiara then it's already reach Jalan duta..
But it don't come cheap now houses there freehold ones carry price tag of a million dollars above.. Some bigger units cost 2 mil to 5 mil
Well if u are a fortune teller in year 2003 u can predict this area can grow so rapidly u can buy a terrace back then at rm 350k as back then before they chop off the hills it's basically jungles and hilly terrain
But even back then there is so limited unit that u need to ballot
Those who got it and kept it for 10 yrs now gained 300%
Hahaha not bad returns
Even u see this lousy shoe box leasehold and no car park and so small already cost almost 1000 Psf
Now my house (even better area and FREEHOLD with carpark and gated community and can walk to curve or the future mrt cost only slightly above a million bucks
It's a really good deal man hahaha

Ching said...

Hey Sin Leong,

Love your articles - would love to get in touch. How can I reach you?

Regards,
Ching
ching [at] iMoney [dot] my

Anonymous said...

The SoHo cost is not really 1000psf. Otherwise the SOHO units will be selling at almost $750k each. This is not the selling price in iproperty. The only area to have hit $1k psf now in PJ is Icon City by Mah Sing.

sinleong said...

the floor space is not really 750sf either... when u buy a double storey house, do you calculate the total floor space or just the ground floor?

Anonymous said...

All properties sold calculate by built up (all usable floor space included)

In this case for ED, the SOHO typical built up is about 750sqft.

Price of RM400+ for this built up is only RM560psf. So its not really 1000k psf..

Anonymous said...

To me since I m into landed prop there is a build up Area and Land area
This place mutiara damansara and the more outskirt area like Kota damansara is now the area to be in..
The new golden triangle of pj .. It's hardly surprising new developments asking for 700psf and some smaller unit asking 1k psf
Mah sing icon city is just to make mah sing and icon and to enrich them .. If u compare m-city to I-city the mcity is more cheaper .. Icon city really they price it like a bungalow but in fact u r getting an ant house or hamster dweliings or a unit so small unit they can profit a lot by calling it an icon+city Haha they need to check definition of icon and city in the dictionary if unclear Haha a city can never be so small unless we talking about a pigeon or bird house/hole

sinleong said...

i cant agree ... if going by your arguments, if i am the developer, i'd just build higher ceiling to put up a mezannine or loft and calculate that into the cost psf. there is a difference in what's a duplex and what is a loft - refer to Monoland's KL SOHO and also Mammoth's empire series. KL SOHO is the real duplex and yes you can calculate the cost into the price psf.