Nowadays property prices are so expensive and in many cases, in many opinions, over-inflated. So, when a property agent called me up that there is a 3-bedroom apartment in Sentul selling at RM190k, I jumped out of my chair immediately.
Sentul is a very strategic location. Earlier I had an opportunity to purchase a medium cost apartment here which eventually ended in court. I have always wanted to get something in Sentul and this seems like a good deal.
Menara Orkid is one of the older apartments here very much sought after by the working class because of the affordable rental and having the LRT station close by. All new launches in Sentul, such as Bayu Sentul and all those over in nearby Jalan Ipoh have price tags well over half a million. Pangsapuri Mawar which is close to Orkid is another popular apartment. However, units in Mawar are being transacted now close to or over RM300k in 2012. Mawar is much better maintained, hence the higher price tag. Despite being leasehold, Mawar's prices continue to appreciate at least 10% year on year.
There is a reason Orkid's prices are much lower than Mawar. It is in a very terrible condition... you feel it straight away as you enter through the very porous security gate.
Then as you enter the building, you find cables just hanging above you. The CCTV appears to be stolen...
And I wonder if the CCTV that still exist is actually working at all...
And many of the covered car park roof slates appear to be missing, probably gone with the winds...
Fortunately, as a bit of consolation, the unit I viewed was quite nice. It's a bright little corner unit. The sizes in Menara Orkid are all pretty standard, about 850sf each, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
In fact, one of the rooms is this hall which can be converted into a bedroom, utility or dining. The condition is however not fantastic. The bathroom appears to be leaking and a pretty common problem with apartments is the leaking from the unit above. This is usually a very shitty problem to solve because you'll have to get the owner of the unit above to fix it and many are reluctant especially with these low or medium cost units, they don't tend to have money to do anything about these things.
The basic condition of the unit means one can do whatever to suit ones taste.
And from another corner, the Genting hills can be seen with the Sentul LRT station. This is however not the nearest LRT station. There is another one closer to this apartment.
A 3-bedroom unit here can fetch at least RM1,000 rental per month. Some with longer term tenants are renting much lower but that's because most of these are from 1st owners who probably bought them years ago for less than RM100k. Maintenance fees are cheap, below RM100/month for those who bothered to pay at all.
And just as I was walking away from the unit I just viewed, I spotted this one which looks like it was on fire only recently.
But that did not discourage me. Just as I was going to make my offer, the idiot estate agent told me it is a Bumiputera unit! He seems to insist that there is no problem for me to purchase it but I am totally not convinced. What a waste of my time!
At best, this unit value is less than RM160k - to be transacted between Bumiputera's only. There are non-Bumi units being advertised in the classifieds today between RM200k to RM270k. On second thoughts, I wouldn't want to put my money where I will have to deal with so much frustrations with difficult neighbours, bad management and probably very challenging to collect rental from these type of tenants too.
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