Verde @ Ara Damansara

Developer Villamas (Who?) presents us Verde at a patch beside Ara Green Residences in "booming" Ara Damansara. There are 4 towers built in a diamond-shaped polygon.

The views of the units are not particularly fantastic. Those facing inside have the pool and the gardens to look at and at the same time units in the opposite tower also have a nice clear view of you in this very close formation of buildings. Those facing outside are facing the road, a petrol station, Ara Green Residences or a very muddy river or big drain whatever you want to call it with an industrial park in the horizons....

 Most parts of Ara Damansara is developed by Sime Darby, the former plantations lord. The whole area is freehold and both Verde and Ara Green sits on this patch of commercial plot.

One of my concerns, same as when I talked about Ara Green, is the commercial plot. There are additional costs associated with the upkeep of commercial lots as compared with residential. Although Villamas has assured that they managed to get TNB electricity rates at residential tariffs, there are others as well such as Indah Water (sewage), MBPJ (Council Tax) and Syabas (water). These are recurring costs. Nevertheless, maintenance fees are low at 26sen psf. Most condos in KL find it difficult to manage at such low rates so they have mostly increased maintenance fees to around 35sen to 40sen and some of the more luxurious ones are around 55sen to 60sen psf. So beware, the maintenance fees may be kept low or subsidized by the developer to give the impression of lower cost of ownership, however this may have to be increased when the JMB takes over and find they are in deficit.    

The thing that really got me impressed with Verde is the layout. Unlike Ara with a lot of weird corners and wasted space, Verde's internal layouts are very pragmatic, bright and airy. Although the units are particularly small as a family unit (circa 1500sf-ish), when you walk-in you have that feeling of space.



Most units have this Lanai which can be convertible into a bed-room, a utility or simply, a Lanai...

Perhaps the most surprising of all is the copy-cat design of the fetish-bathroom which I wrote about much much earlier when I visited projects in Bangkok - http://realtymalaysia.blogspot.sg/2011/01/thais-fetish-with-bathrooms.html... it seems Malaysians are now starting to catch-up...

I always hated bathrooms which have no windows... and Verde's architects have put them in the right corners where they get natural light. 

The kitchen is also well decked out. I like separate dry and wet kitchens which really suit our Asian life-styles. The bigger units incorporate a maid room with her own bath/toilet.

Perhaps the typical disappointment is the tiny bedrooms. They are really quite a squeeze.

 And some things are really not necessary such as the video intercomm system below. In a condominium, if the visitor has managed to get passed the main security at the entrance and again at the lobby, why is it necessary to have a video intercomm at the front door? This should be at the lift lobby. I think this is a waste and I'd prefer to have a RM5k discount to take this out.

The prices range from RM800k upwards to over a million. On average they are about RM900k. So is this do-able?

If you are buying for investments and to rent out, I beg the question, who wants to rent a condo out in the suburbs with rentals of RM6000/month upwards? Certainly locals who tend to live in the suburbs won't agree. There is a Japanese school close-by with a sizeable Japanese community, so you may target them but so are all those developments in the Saujana enclave.

If you are buying for own-stay, RM900k or much less can get you a nice 22x75sf landed link house in a gated community in the Ara Damansara area itself. I myself feel, condos such as Verde might not be appreciating in leaps and bounds as compared to landed houses and certainly, landed houses are cheaper to maintain with much lower maintenance fees - just without the swimming pool and other life-style facilities.... so go figure...

Nevertheless, both Tower A and D launched are 95% sold out. Are buyers bullish about this project? Or are they directors and staffs of Villamas getting their 1st pick with huge discounts? We'll see when they launch subsequent towers...