Mont Kiara MK28

I never liked Mont Kiara, and this latest trip reaffirmed that position. I think Mont Kiara is the most high density residential area in the whole of Malaysia. It is a victim of its own success , causing every developer to want to build something there. The place looks like it is perpetually under construction. Now, the borders of Mont Kiara has even expanded into Segambut. The road has already been linked (below).

The position of Mont Kiara as an expat enclave can only be stamped due to the presence of the international schools there. Or else, I cannot understand why expats would want to live in such a high density construction zone when better options in next door Sri Hartamas, Bangsar and Damansara Heigths are available. But I've recently learnt that the rental market in Mont Kiara now has been suffering due to the over-building. An expat friend is apparently paying only RM2000/month for a fully furnished 2 bed-room unit in I-Zen Kiara II which is worth more than RM600k. I am sure not all owners are so desperate but there are really many units vacant from the looks of it.

So, developer Sunrise has launched yet another super luxury condo in Mont Kiara... This one is located on the same row as Mont Kiara International School - so I guess it is catering towards that market of locals or expats who put their children there. The units sizes start from 2500sf - this is definitely a family oriented type setting with rental expectation no less than RM10k for a fully furnished unit.

Facilities-wise, they're pretty standard... swimming pool, tennis court, bla bla bla... in a very resort-like setting. This is probably something of a luxury now in Mont Kiara as land is getting pretty scarce and developers are starting to put small-ish pools and facilties on their roof top to manage space - similar to KLCC these days. So, MK28 is leaving nothing to make this a truly luxury experience.

The show room is a 2700sf unit which really is quite comfortable for a family of 4 with a maid. The dry kitchen has an open concept that opens out to the living and dining room.

Inside, there is another kitchen... for heavier cooking and this is linked to the maid's quarters and washing area. The maid has her own entrance.



It has to be noted that, each unit has its own private lobby with 3 serving lifts (below).

The thing I liked about the unit is the bright and airy layout. From the maid quarters all the way up to every room in the unit has a window which is due to the corner layout - it's more like a bungalow in the sky as there are 3 sides to corner unlike the 2 sides to most corner units. There is also a very nice study area tucked in the middle of the layout.

Every one of the 3-bedrooms has its own bathroom. Interestingly, the bathroom showers have a full glass door that opens out to the balcony (below). I would imagine that at the point of life when one can afford to buy or rent this unit, one would be too fat and wrinkled to worry about anyone finding it worthwhile to climb up to the balcony to take a peek... if anything, that would have been a bonus...

The walk-in closet that opens out into this large bathroom is well thought out.

Construction is in progress... The northern flank of the condo faces the busy NKVE just past the Duta Toll, so I would avoid this view due to the noise. The Southern view which also faces the school should be sought after. Prices start from around RM700psf, round about where KLCC was a year ago. This is after consideration of the horrendous traffic and dense location. There is no public transport however that would not be necessary for people who can afford to live here.

KL Sentral - Our Capital's Transportation Hub

My company has recently relocated to KL Sentral and now I am beginning to see 1st hand this location in terms of the development and investment potentials. It is quite different from just passing through this place in the trains on the way to the city. 1st of all, being on the ground one notices straight away how badly managed this place is. Everything is quite chaotic and dusty, and this is not just due to the ever continuing development. The place is just badly managed... that sums it all. From the touts pestering you, the pasar malam environment in the station, the potholes, traffic, dirty toilets, expensive parking, lack of parking, illegal parking and bits and pieces of the building falling off, one can say it's just very badly managed.
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Yet, we have 2 upmarket properties here. One is Suasana Sentral. When it was launched in the late 90s, one can get a 3 bedroom unit here for around RM350k. But of course, back then, RM350k was big money that yours truly did not have. One would only salivate and watch those MNC executives walking in and booking their choice units in the sales office. Suasana Sentral's price today has more than doubled - not difficult as almost everything has more than doubled in the past 10 years. Ascott used to be part of this building but pulled out some time ago - possibly to focus on something less complicated...



Last year, The Loft was completed and was touted as another success. But I guess, even if you build a cave in KL Sentral, it would be a success because at least you would have a huge market base in the MNCs based in Plaza Sentral. But I wonder if this would be a long term kind of tenancy or short term serviced apartment residents. This location is extremely high density. You can see from the pic below, how close The Loft is from Plaza Sentral. You can possibly just jump out of bed, open your window and leap into your office chair.

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...

Melbourne housing now "severely unaffordable"

The writer, Chris Zappone below cited ratio of house prices to the median income of typical households. So, where are we in Kuala Lumpur? I don't have exact figures but if let's say we take median income in KL as RM60k per year, and median house price in KL and the suburbs like Subang Jaya as RM500k... then we have median house price 8.3 times our median annual salary. Still not as bad as Melbourne at 9.0, I guess... But apparently, London is 7.2 and LA is 5.9. So, we are still quite bad...


Chris Zappone
January 24, 2011
www.theage.com.au

Melbourne has scored near the bottom of an international ranking of housing affordability, stoking fears runaway house prices have made Australia a less equitable country.

Update The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, which ranked 325 markets by affordability, listed Melbourne as the world's 321st most affordable city, more reasonably priced than only Sydney and a handful of other locations.

London is more affordable than Geelong.

The ratio of house prices to median yearly household income was 9 in Melbourne, versus 9.6 in Sydney - the second least affordable city in the world, in spot number 324, according to data produced by the US-New Zealand anti-regulation group Demographia in a survey of six English-speaking nations and Hong Kong.

Advertisement: Story continues below The group put the median Melbourne house price at $565,000 with the median household income at $63,100.

Hong Kong came in last at number 325, with an income-house price ratio of 11.4, while Saginaw, in Michigan ranked No. 1, with a multiple of 1.6. Demographia considers markets with a median multiple of 3 or less "affordable", while those with 5.1 or more are considered "severely unaffordable". Australia's major markets were all considered "severely unaffordable''.

US-based geographer and author Joel Kotkin said that even after the housing bubble implosion in the US and Britain beginning in 2008, the ratio of home prices to incomes has grown in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, London, Toronto and Vancouver.

"Perhaps most remarkable has been the shift in Australia, once the exemplar of modestly priced, high-quality, middle-class housing, to now the most unaffordable housing market in the English-speaking world," he said. "The real issue is affordability and Australia has gone from a middle-class paradise in that regard into a more stratified society - just as we find in Britain and parts of the US."

Mr Kotkin, who has visited Australia extensively, described the trend as "neo-feudalism" that unravels the social achievement of spreading property ownership.

Demographia's report comes as Australian home prices are expected to show little growth in 2011, after double digit yearly growth as recently as 2010, driven by the slow pace of construction approvals, strong immigration, and an economy that hasn't experienced a recession in nearly two decades.

House prices plateaued in mid-2010, amid interest rate rises and a weaker pace of sales. The national city dwelling price fell 0.2 per cent in November, to $466,000, according to RP Data-Rismark information. Six in 10 Australians live in major cities.

The third quarter 2010 rankings were compiled from national housing reports and estimates drawn from census data on incomes, with calculations made in local currency.

Swelling cities

Separately, a report from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship calculates that if 260,000 migrants come to Australia per year, both Sydney and Melbourne will need to expand by 430,000 hectares, or 4300 kilometers by 2060.

“Expansion of urban areas raises issues such as likely increases in traffic congestion, city (air) pollution, and competition for land as a resource,” the report concluded. “The latter is an important issue since peripheral land of a number of capital cities has been relatively productive agriculture land, which can supply fresh food to the local area with lower freight requirements.”

The report on the physical impact of immigration was prepared by Flinders University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Sustainable Ecosystems Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

'Severely unaffordable'

The Demographia report showed Australian cities shared the mantle of “severely unaffordable” with American, Canadian, British and New Zealand cities.

Demographia listed Melbourne as the world's 321st most affordable city, more reasonably priced than only Sydney, which came in at 325th, and a handful of other locations.

The survey found that the ratio of house prices to median annual household income was 9.6 in Sydney. It put the median house price at $634,300 and median income $66,200.

Brisbane's affordability trailed London’s so-called exurbs, which stretch into neighbouring counties in east and southeast England. Queensland’s capital ranked 303 in terms of affordability, with a ratio of 6.6 per cent while the English markets were 297, with a ratio of 6.5 times.

The median house price in Brisbane was $447,500, while the median household income was $67,900.

Perth, ranked 291, with a 6.3 ratio, based on a $480,000 houses with a median household income of $75,700, lower than the New York City areas, which scored 289 on the list.

Better times ahead?

Sydney-based real estate research and investment group Rismark believes Australian homes will become more affordable through 2011, as incomes remain strong and house prices flatten out.

"As Australia's business investment and export boom drives strong household income growth at the same time as interest rates keep dwelling prices in check, we are likely to see a substantial improvement in residential real estate valuations," said Rismark joint managing director Christopher Joye.

By Rismark's calculations, the ratio of price to disposable household income ratio has dropped from 4.6 to 4.4 between the June and September quarters, as the median quarterly Australian home price fell from $418,000 to $405,000.

Rismark includes homes outside capital cities, apartments and attached units, and draws on income data that captures wealth generated from investments and multiple sources of revenue, when calculating house-price to income ratios.

Melbourne-based innovation research agency 2thinknow, which compares the social and commercial advantages of 289 cities worldwide, agreed with Demographia's assessment on Australia's affordability.

"Anything [with an income-house price ratio] above 5 is a high multiple - based on two incomes and the lifestyle flexibility to have children," director Christopher Hire said.

The impact means Australian cities receive low benchmarks in the world on 2thinknow's property prices in the Innovation Cities Index. Sydney ranks among the least affordable places, with a 0 out of 5 rating, on a par with San Francisco and Hong Kong, while Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hobart have a rating of 1.

"High property prices mean investment that should be in productive infrastructure or capital is spent on property," he said, leaving the country unprepared when the mining boom ends.

czappone@fairfax.com.au

Iconic: The Met @ Sathorn, Bangkok

The Singapore Embassy at Sathorn Road has land... so what does one do when one has land?..... One Builds! And then we have this iconic masterpiece in the middle of one of the busiest districts in Bangkok...

This building has about 60 floors but amazingly low density. It has units ranging in size from 1000+ sf 2 bedroom units to large family packs of 4 bedroom units. The smaller units are at the lower floors while the larger ones occupy the higher floors. The ratio is almost 1.5 lifts to a unit. The 2 bedroom units share a common lobby which has a 2 lifts - a regular one and a service lift.

As in all cities in this region there is a glut with these luxury pieces, so there are several developer units still in stock. The 2 bedroom units start from RM1.4million which comes fully furnished.

There are a few facilities deck in this building. One of them has this gorgeous pool above. The sauna which comes in both the steam and dry variants also have a hot and cold jacuzzi in a really nice spa setting.

The 2-bedroom unit that I viewed has this lovely balcony with a tree planted in it. Unfortunately, the balcony access is via the bedroom instead of the living room where I think it should be.

Nevertheless, there is quite a nice straightforward layout to the living room with an open kitchen.

The bedrooms however may be too small for one's liking. The 2nd bedroom actually seems a bit more spacious that the master bedroom because the interior designer decided to pack a walk in closet into the already small master bedroom making it look claustrophobic.

I really struggled to find a good angle in the compact master-bedroom to take a good picture but managed to get a good one of the 2nd bedroom above. However, the bathroom in the master bedroom is nice with this large window - these days people don't design windows into bathrooms of compact apartments. So this is a nice welcome.


This unit comes fully furnished as it is. Accessories are also provided such as the intercom below and all the white goods in the kitchen which includes a washing machine, dryer and dish washer.

Downtown Condominium @ Bukit Ceylon

Since there has been a flurry of interests in Downtown Condo, I thought I make a piece here about this property. With Seri Raja Chulan and Menara Bukit Ceylon's prices shooting above RM600k, perhaps this is the last place in Bukit Ceylon where you can get away with around a RM500k budget for a 3-bedroom unit.

Lately, I have noticed there has been some minor work on the facade and entrance to the building. Many units inside have since been renovated but the lifts and common facilities remain drab as before.

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The typical layout is 4 units per floor.

2 units faces the car park above. This is a prime piece of land which is awaiting development. So, the 2 units facing this car park will be facing dust and noise apocalypse for 3 years when the construction starts.

The other 2 units faces the side of Somerset Seri Bukit Ceylon and the front of the building, which is Changkat Raja Chulan. The back of these 2 units are very close to Seri Raja Chulan (picture below). So close you can stab your neighbour with a laundry pole*.

*laundry pole - in Singapore, a great number of people live in HDB flats and back in the days there were no dryers, Singaporeans dry their clothes by hanging them off laundry poles which are stuck out their windows perpendicularly from the building.... not so elegant but it is still a working solution till this day...