Sentul East -Can it be the next prime area?

YTL Land & Development Bhd recently launched condominium was a sign that property buyers are confident in the growth of Sentul. Price of The Capers were sold at around Rm550 psqft which is considered high for a place that is just a stone throw away from Public Flat (Perumahan Awam Bandar Baru Sentul). What are the attractions of Sentul that make buyers to willingly cough out hard cash to buy a unit in suburban Kuala Lumpur? The initial launching of Tamarind and Saffron were at reasonable price around Rm250sqft but recently raised to RM400sqft which is a whopping 60% gain in less than 4 years. Apart from this residential project, there are D6 & D7 commercial project which is taking place soon.

Question is the recent craze of The Capers justifiable? Below are my personal views of Sentul East.

Attractive Points

1) Owner of the area is YTL, which is famous for turning stone to gold. This company is well managed and prudent in their investment. The risk factor is much lower

2) The developer and city council is slowly cleaning up Jalan Ipoh and Sentul to change the image of Sentul as a backwater area to a livelier suburb area.

3) Up and coming hypermarket in Sentul East

4) Next to Star LRT and Komuter station and stated in the MRT masterplan that the station will be located nearby

5) 10 minutes from KLCC (if no traffic jam)

6) Future growth in the region by YTL(checkout http://www.sentul-lifestyle.com)

Minus Points

1) Near to low cost apartment, this may hamper the afford to sell it as prime area. Sentul West will be a better option.

2) The nearby condominium e.g Rivercity and Viva Residency are still about 30% lower than Sentul East

3) Considered cheaper alternative to Sentul West which have their own private park.

4) Risk of MRT project not completing is quite high since now is still in very initial stage

Conclusion

Definitely the prospect is there but paying RM400-RM600sqft is it worth it? We still need to ask ourselves how long the place needed to become a fully matured area and starting to yield high rental and going off at RM800-900sqft? My view, the area still need at least 8 to 10 years to be on par with Mont Kiara. However i believe is a good buy for a piece of land in Kuala Lumpur.

Armanee Condominium Damansara Damai

Many people always mistook this condominium with the one in Damansara Perdana. As both have similar name. The one in Damansara Perdana is called Armanee Terrace and the one in Damansara Damai is called Armanee Condominium.

Some history on this condominium, it started construction way back in 2002 and started to deliver on 2006. Rumor, that there is a long delay and difficulty by developer (MKLAND) in completing the project in time. I only took notice of this condominium this year as i always thought that it will be very pricey for a duplex high-end condo. However when i checked iproperty and propwall, it seems that the price is reasonable and i decided to do some research on that area and view the property myself.

First Impression.....

My first trip to Damansara Damai, i took an earlier turn and ended up in Damansara Prima, the place is full of medium to low cost apartment. Finally i found Damansara Damai which is the 2nd junction rather than the 1st from LDP direction. My initial feeling is that both Damansara Prima and Damai are full of low cost apartment. How can an area with such a high dense of low to medium cost apartments consist of a high-end condo? At last, I reached Armanee Condominium. Surprisingly the condo looks very pleasant from outside. The guard asked me to park my car in the visitor car park, which is just beside Block A. From my observation, there is plenty of carpark for visitors (good point).

I was shown 2 units by my agent, one on the 5^th floor and another one on 9^th floor in Block A. The one in 5^th Floor look ok but the corridor to the unit is a little too dark (minus 1 point) but the one in 9^th floor have a brighter corridor. Both units have almost identical design with just some tweaking on the 2^nd floor balcony as the 9^th floor unit have a smaller balcony but compensated with a bath tub in the master bedroom’s washroom. Overall the interior design is good as they do not have odd corners and each area is evenly divided (See below floor plan). The agents later showed me the Clubhouse, Badminton hall and the swimming pool.

I am quite satisfied with my 1^st visit to Armanee condominium.

Floor Plan

Conclusion

I managed another few trips to Armanee Condominium with many more agents and went around Damansara Damai’s neighborhood. I even visited Park Avenue and the up and coming One Damansara Condo(in another article) for comparison. Below are my Plus and Minus points for Armanee Condominium.

PLUS POINTS

1) Very big unit with nice Balinese design. When I walked around the swimming pool area I really got a feeling I’m in a resort for vacation as the ambient and the constant breeze really put me into relax mode. Got nice cafeteria also

2) Cheap (~RM200-250 per square foot)

3) Two car parks for each unit and ample of visitors carpark

4) Good facilities – Swimming pool, badminton court, tennis court, basketball court, gym, sauna and mountain bike trail(just outside the condo)

5) Urban Park just right beside block B, that means no more development on the west side of Armanee Condo.

6) Cheap maintenance fees 0.18 sen

7) Near new ETP growth area –RRI and Sg Buloh MRT station.

8) Next to OSKProperties’s high end development Damansara Sutera

MINUS POINTS

1) Single exit from Damansara Damai

2) Single road from/to Armanee Condo and Damansara Damai (damm bad)

3) Condo management cannot be compared to those like Tamarind Sentul or Nadia Desa Park City

4) Future plan, 5 more blocks of Armanee condo but dunno when they going to build it. (this can be good or bad point)

5) Damansara Damai got too many low end flats.

6) Interior fittings e.g tap, door knobs are of low quality.

To sum up, I would think this is for those who is cost conscious but want to have a resort like home. With the current housing price in KL, this is consider a bargain and much more upside since the price did not appreciate that much.

For more information about Armanee condo, you can visit Armanee Condo Residents Assoc Blog: http://armanee-ra.blogspot.com