House Number 83 - Part 1

Earlier I blogged about this house I bought in USJ, Subang Jaya as part of my investment focus in properties along the LRT/MRT Extension - Episode1 and Episode2. So, here it is.... a 20feet x 60feet double storey link house in USJ13.

At the time I went to view it, there were several houses in the same area up for sale. Some of these owners were just cashing in on the LRT extension announcement which sent the property prices here up 30%-50%. I also believe, some owners just wanted to get out of the congestion that the nearby LRT station will pose. 

Anyway, the price ranged up to RM480k at that time but I settled for this one, the most run down of them all. I reckon that being almost 20 years old, there are many things need changing in the house - plumbing, roofing and electric cables mainly. So, the best deal would be to negotiate a really run down house, infested with termites and leaking from all angles. That way, I can use the money saved to pay for an almost new house.... that's when the fun starts... when the renovations begin...

I regret that I did not manage to snap original pictures earlier. But when I got to it, we have already smashed the back walls to extend the house by a further 5 feet.

It is to make a helluva lot of difference as can be seen in the pictures below. The room downstairs, hardly big enough to be a bedroom has just got it's walls smashed. As you can see below, the lines where walls used to be and we were going to extend the room sideways as well as back.

Below was the front part. I really disliked the bay windows that came with the house. Despite an advice from a good friend to leave them alone, I decided to smash the front as well and extended it as far as I can go - 5 feet - Council rules dictate that the distance between the front wall of the house and the gate must not be less than 20 feet...

Upstairs' master-bedroom as well... 

The picture below is where we have removed the ceiling tiles to reveal the front car park roof where we will build an RC floor to accommodate an elongated front section... 

The front extension however, only affected half of the house where the bay window was as the other half was maintained. However, we built a balcony off the roof of the other half... Here again, the ceiling was removed to reveal the roof where we would build an RC floor.

After the RC floor was constructed, it looked like these pictures below:

The upstairs 2 bedrooms at the back were also really tiny. They both share a bathroom.

Later, we were to smash the wall at the back of the rooms and extended it so each bedroom would have their own bathrooms...

The master bedroom's bathroom was spared but the tiles really had to go...

Now, back to the front of the house... in the picture below, the roofs where the balcony would be built and the part to be extended have already been removed. Compare with the original un-touched house on the right....

After the walls were smashed, the extension began...

And the end result gave the house an entirely fresh new facade...

In Episode 2, we'll look at how the house looks like after the transformation... stay-tuned

Property market set to pick up pace, says report

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/property-market-set-to-pick-up-pace-says-report/

MAY 11, 2013

Consultants told Singapore’s Straits Times that they see good prospects for property in the Klang Valley. — file picKUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — Consultants have expressed confidence that Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) will continue post-Election 2013, Singapore’s Straits Times reported today. 

The programme is expected to inject US$440 billion (RM1.31 trillion) into sectors such as oil and gas, tourism, financial services and urban infrastructure.

The property market will also pick up again, analysts told the broadsheet.

“Now that the election is out of the way, the property market appears to be re-energised and we are confident of seeing substantial gains over the next three years in both Peninsular and East Malaysia,” Christopher Boyd, executive chairman of CB Richard Ellis, was quoted as saying.

He cautioned, however, that there would likely be a parallel increase in supply from developers who had held back new releases before Election 2013.

“From the third quarter onwards, we anticipate that continued high liquidity, additional public expenditure on infrastructure and renewed confidence in the future will all combine to bring residential property values to new highs,” he told The Straits Times.

While the newspaper reported that many Singaporean investors have been keen on Iskandar, the analysts it spoke to warned that the development in Johor is an untested market.

Consultants see good prospects for property in the Klang Valley — bolstered by the fact Malaysia is said to have the second-lowest property prices in Southeast Asia on a per square foot basis.

Brian Koh, the head of research and consultancy at DTZ Malaysia, told Straits Times that he expects Malaysian property prices to rise by 5 per cent to 10 per cent a year over the next few years, with the steepest increases in the Klang Valley market.

Comments Accidentally Deleted

Hi Everyone,
I am sorry I accidentally deleted about 50 of the latest comments in my blog. Yesterday I was under attack by a spammer who posted hundreds of advertisments in my comments section. The adverts kept on appearing despite me putting them in the Spam Box.

Unfortunately, in my haste, I accidentally deleted some valuable comments. I really appreciate your valuable comments. So, please continue to do so. Thank you.

SL