Penthouse condos

Penthouse condos

BY THEAN LEE CHENG

Mayland plans high-end units in Mont Kiara- Hartamas area.

MALAYSIA Land Properties Sdn Bhd (Mayland), known for its large volume-small offerings of between 400 sq ft and 1,000 sq ft, is moving on to bigger things.

Managing director Low Gay Teck says the company is proposing to build large high-end units of 3,500 sq ft in the Mont’Kiara-Hartamas area to meet a market with an appetite for such units.

“Research shows that living in a condominium has become acceptable to many and there is this category who would like to exchange their bungalow for a condominium. Lately, there is also the issue of security. They also want a certain size. We have taken note of this. So having acquired this land, we want to do something different from what we have been doing so far,” says Low.

“This market would want the luxury of space and security, and we will offer that,” he says. There will also come with prices to match, with each unit expected to be around RM1.6mil. Each unit will have a minimum of four rooms. The project is pending approval from local authorities. Mayland hopes to launch this by the end of this year.

The Hartamas Shopping Centre in Sri Hartamas, PJ.
The proposed freehold development will be on a site just under 2 acres and will be located a few hundred meters from Plaza Damas, another development by Mayland.

He says location is important for larger units to be successful and Mont’Kiara would be a good place to begin, as there are many families, particularly expatriates, in that location.

Mayland has been in Malaysia the last 15 years. For several years now, the Hong Kong-based developer has been known for its serviced units in integrated development Plaza Damas which straddles the Duta-Hartamas area. That development currently has 650 units of serviced apartments of between 400sq ft and about 700sq ft in two blocks known as Mayfair and Dorchester and some shop offices.

The Waldorf and Windsor blocks, its subsequent two projects after Mayfair and Dorchester, offers larger units of 500 sq ft to 1,700 sq ft. Together, Waldorf and Windsor will add another 680 units in that integrated development. They will be completed by the third quarter of this year. Waldorf is currently 90% sold, and Windsor 85%.

“Our service apartment are niche products of one or two rooms with a certain target audience comprising mostly young couples and single professionals. On the other hand, our Mont’Kiara project, which comes with very much larger built-ups, is targeted at another market. We like to diversify our market, instead of concentrating on just one segment of it,” says Low.

A property agent who specialises in the Mont’Kiara vicinity cautioned that popular though the Mont’Kiara may be as a high-yield rental market, because large units come with hefty rental of RM13,000 to RM15,000, they take a longer time to move. They also take longer to sell.

Mayland MD Low Gay Teck.
Says Stephanie Khor of i-Link Properties: “The most popular are those between 1,200 to 2,000sq ft units. Because the monthly rental is cheaper, between RM3,000 and RM5,000, they move faster.”

Khor says “about 60% of Mont’Kiara residents are expatriates; and there would be more executives than CEOs.”

She says Sunrise Bhd’s Damai is fully occupied because it pioneered the large unit segment (2,272 sq ft to 3,325 sq ft for standard units, 5,575 sq ft to 5,733 sq ft for the super deluxe, and 5,934 sq ft to 8,727 sq ft for penthouses). 10@Mont’Kiara came subsequently with 3,500 sq ft to 4,000 sq ft.

Besides keeping an eye on a new market segment, Mayland will at the same time, work on the third phase of its integrated Plaza Damas development located directly opposite the Hartamas Shopping Centre.

This six-acre development will have about 800 units of mostly studio-serviced apartments of about 500 sq ft. This will be priced at around RM400 per sq ft.

Low says the first phase of its service apartment in that area was priced around RM300 per sq ft, at about RM100,000 a unit.

“A lot of things have changed between the late 1990s and today, and cost of building materials have gone up quite a bit,” he says.

Low says the rental market and capital appreciation have been very good for those units.

“We have seen serviced apartment units transacting above RM180,000 a unit when the developer’s price was RM110,000,” he says; a fact acknowledged by i-Link Properties agent Stephanie Khor.

Khor says bare units are rented out at about RM900 and the tastefully furnished ones at about RM1,300.

“For a RM110,000, the yield is very good. Those units appeal to a certain lifestyle because all the conveniences are located within walking distance. Because the units are small, they are easy to maintain,” she says.

Continuing its work on Plaza Damas vicinity, Mayland will now move on to phase three where it will launch 80 units of its three-storey commercial shop offices in the second quarter of this year.

Its shop offices in its first and second phase, 90 and 70 units of four-storey commercial shop offices respectively, are currently transacting 50% above its developer’s price of RM1mil to RM2mil. They were launched in the late 1990s.

This third phase will also have a boutique hotel and the company is mulling over the possibility of an office complex.

To integrate the development that comprises 14 acres on the older phase and 6 acres on new one, a sky bridge will link the two.

On the congestion that may arise with some 2,130 units of service apartments (650 in Dorchester/Mayfair, 680 in Wardolf and Windsor and 800 in phase three), Low says studio units will have only one or two people per unit so there will not be much of a crowd.

“This is the studio apartment lifestyle. A number of the occupants travel widely and may be away for several days in a week. So I do not see congestion building up. Added to that is the space we have allocated for cars.

There are currently 2000 parking bays available in phase one and two, excluding those from Waldorf and Windsor, and another 1,600 and 1,800 parking bays in phase three,” says Low.

By comparison, Desa Hartamas has over 100 shophouse-style commercial space and only street parking.