TRX's residential market takes shape — a tale of two tiers

PETALING JAYA (May 15): Tun Razak Exchange was never supposed to be about the apartments.

When Malaysia's most ambitious financial district was mapped out on a 70-acre freehold site along Jalan Tun Razak, the residential towers were supporting cast — amenities for the bankers and lawyers who would fill the Grade A office blocks rising around them. The real story, the planners said, was the offices. The mall. The skyline.

That story has not changed. But a second one has quietly emerged alongside it.

With The Exchange TRX mall now a fixture on Kuala Lumpur's lifestyle circuit and its office towers drawing multinationals at rental rates that rival the Golden Triangle, TRX has become one of the city's most closely-watched residential addresses — and one of its most divided.

Subsale transaction data from Oregeon Property Consultancy reveals a market of striking contrasts: six residential projects, one postcode, and a price gap of nearly RM1,500 psf separating the top from the bottom.

Two tiers, one postcode

Across 325 subsale transactions recorded between 2023 and 2025, residential projects in the TRX precinct averaged RM1,843 psf — a figure that masks more than it reveals.

At the top of the market, TRX Residensi I — with transacted units ranging from 474 to 1,345 sq ft — averaged RM2,307 psf, placing typical unit prices broadly between RM1.0 million and RM3.1 million. Its neighbour Residen Simbar TRX, where transacted sizes ran from 807 to 1,055 sq ft, averaged RM2,266 psf, with units broadly changing hands in the RM1.8 million to RM2.4 million range. Both developments sit within the TRX master plan itself, connected directly to The Exchange TRX mall and the TRX MRT station on the Putrajaya Line — an integration that buyers are clearly pricing in. 

TRX Residensi I, the more liquid of the two, recorded 14 transactions across 2024 and 2025, with average psf rising 2.9% from RM2,260 to RM2,326 year-on-year — a quiet but consistent upward drift that suggests the precinct's maturing amenities are doing their work.

Residen Simbar TRX also recorded a movement, an ebb — from RM2,378 psf in 2024 to RM2,229 psf in 2025 — though with just one transaction in 2024 and three in 2025, both readings carry limited statistical weight.

The 100%-sold TRX Residensi I commands asking prices of RM2,200 to RM2,941 psf in the secondary market, with fully-furnished units skewing towards the upper end. 

Core Residence @ TRX, the precinct's earliest completed residential project, does not have recorded subsale transactions in Oregeon's dataset — though seller asking prices of RM2,200–RM2,400 psf suggest the market expects it to trade at parity with its newer neighbours once secondary activity picks up.

The volume story belongs to Agile

Price leadership is one thing. Market depth is another — and here, one project stands apart from all others.

Residensi Agile Delima — marketed as Agile Bukit Bintang — recorded 264 transactions across 2024 and 2025, accounting for more than 81% of all TRX-catchment subsales in Oregeon's dataset. No other project comes close.

Situated along Jalan Bukit Bintang, the 61-storey serviced apartment with 1,500 units is a five-minute walk from TRX and widely regarded by the market as part of the precinct's residential catchment, Agile Bukit Bintang is freehold and completed in 2022 — attributes that clearly resonate with buyers who want TRX proximity without the TRX price tag.

Agile Bukit Bintang offered considerably more accessible entry points across its 581–1,238 sq ft units, averaging RM1,932 psf — with typical transaction prices ranging from approximately RM1.1 million to RM2.4 million depending on size.

Residensi Tribeca, with units between 510 and 868 sq ft, averaged RM1,635 psf, translating to a price range of roughly RM834,000–RM1.4 million. 

Residensi Tribeca's trajectory is the most volatile of the group — climbing sharply from RM1,414 psf in 2023 to RM1,746 psf in 2024 before easing to RM1,686 psf in 2025. Whether the 2024 peak reflects genuine re-rating or a thin-market spike remains an open question as more transactions accumulate.

Notably, secondary market asking prices of RM1,300–RM1,500 psf in some listings have yet to catch up with actual transacted values — a lag that may reflect stale listings or conservative seller pricing rather than a true picture of where the market is clearing.

The legacy discount

Before TRX was TRX, there were simply two serviced apartment blocks on Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Walter Grenier. They have not been erased by the precinct's transformation — but the data suggests they have been left behind by it.

The legacy projects tell a different story in absolute terms. 231 TR Serviced Suites, with transacted sizes of 495–980 sq ft, averaged RM920 psf — meaning most units traded hands at between RM455,000 and RM902,000. Asking prices on the secondary market range from RM600 to RM800 psf.

Fairlane Residences, across a wider range of 581–1,206 sq ft, averaged RM830 psf, with typical prices falling between RM482,000 and RM1.0 million. Asking prices of RM600–RM800 psf place it firmly in a different market conversation from its neighbours.

The gap is nonetheless arresting. At RM830–920 psf, Fairlane and 231 TR trade at less than 40% of what TRX Residences commands — not because of where they are, but because of what they are.

Age, specifications, and brand narratives have proven to be more powerful pricing forces in this precinct than proximity alone.

Why the offices matter

The precinct's growing office occupancy — The Exchange 106, at 106 storeys, has reached 75% — creates a sustained pool of high-income professionals who form the natural demand base for the residential market above RM1,500 psf. Grade A+ towers command rental rates of RM10 to RM17 psf; older stock in the immediate vicinity quotes RM4 to RM5 psf.

Once again, the same tiering that defines the residential market runs through the commercial one.

Menara Affin, the 43-storey tower built as Affin Bank Group's new headquarters, anchors the owner-occupier end of the spectrum, with lettable space still available.

The most consequential incoming development is Lot C7.12 — a 39-storey, 800,000 sq ft NLA tower being developed by TRX City Sdn Bhd, with PwC Malaysia, one of the Big Four accounting firms, confirmed as anchor tenant occupying at least 200,000 sq ft — equivalent to 25% of NLA. The tower, adjacent to Menara IQ, is targeted for completion in 2029.

Meanwhile, the Valiram family's RM1.1 billion acquisition of Lendlease's stakes  late last year in both TRX Mall and the TRX Campus Office — an eight-level boutique commercial building integrated with the mall — signals the kind of institutional conviction that tends to precede further residential re-rating. 

What's being built next

The pipeline extends the precinct's densification across residential, commercial, academic, and hospitality components simultaneously — which is, by design, exactly how integrated financial districts sustain long-term value.

On the residential front, Golden Crown Residence will add 490 condominium suites under the Golden Crown Residence brand, priced from RM1.35 million to RM3.17 million across one- and two-bedroom configurations ranging from 624 to 1,023 sq ft.

Positioned within the master plan, it is likely to compete directly with TRX Residences and Simbar in the upper tier.

The most consequential incoming development, however, may not be residential at all.

Monash University Malaysia's planned RM2.8 billion campus within TRX — a commitment of generational scale — would introduce a sustained academic population into a precinct currently defined by finance and retail. The demographic implications for surrounding residential demand are significant and largely unpriced by the current market.

The Kimpton Naluria by IHG, which opened in December 2025 with 466 rooms and rates from RM697 per night, has already begun adding hospitality credibility to TRX's live-work-play proposition.

TRX is no longer a promise. The question the data now raises is a sharper one: as the master plan fills in and the address premium compounds — how long will it be before the legacy projects at RM830 psf find themselves repriced by the neighbourhood they once preceded — and which direction will it go, up or down?

Editor's note: Transaction data provided by Oregeon Property Consultancy

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