Kota Damansara continues to be on investors’ radar

PETALING JAYA (Sept 25): Kota Damansara will continue to be on the property investors’ radar given its location, future transportation connectivity and new significant projects near the township, according to TheEdgeProperty.com director of business and product development Alvin Ong.  

“Originally developed as low-medium cost housing estate, Kota Damansara is now on every investor’s radar,” said Alvin during his talk entitled “Property price trends in Kota Damansara and Subang Jaya” at the All About Homes workshop series at IKEA Mutiara Damansara today. The two-day workshop series organised by IKEA, TheEdgeProperty.com and S P Setia Bhd began yesterday at IKEA Cheras.

Alvin said Kota Damansara which neighbours the established townships of Mutiara Damansara at the east and Tropicana at the South, will be seamlessly connected to both its neighbours by the Sungai Buloh-Kajang mass rapid transit (MRT) line, slated for operations at end of this year.

“Although property prices in Kota Damansara are moving up slowly, it is also steady. Also do not forget that Kota Damansara is also next to the upcoming massive Kwasa Damansara township development, and other upscale developments such as Sunway Nexis,” Alvin said.

On Subang Jaya, Alvin foresees the property market there to continue doing well in the future, especially SS15, SS19 and SS17.

“In fact, my conclusion came from SS15, 19 and 17 as they were the top three landed housing areas in terms of capital gains. SS15 achieved 12% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) psf while SS19 and 17 recorded 10% and 8% CAGR respectively,” he offered.

He said these three landed housing areas stand out due to their proximity to education institutions and new light rail transit (LRT) stations.

“There are two new stations located near these areas. They are also enjoying a stable rental market with students all year round from different programs with different intakes to ensure a constant stream of students. The last possible reason is these three projects are sitting on freehold land,” Alvin said.

Alvin’s session was followed by S P Setia head of sales and marketing Daniel Ong’s presentation on “How to identify a good integrated development?”  Besides sharing about the success of integrated developments around the world, he pointed out four keys to identify a good integrated development: sustainability, integration, place making and accessibility.

“A good integrated development must be long lasting so the developer has to think for the future. For example, a 10-stall hawker centre is good enough to serve the crowd today but is it enough for the crowd 10 or 20 years later? You need to plan for the future so it could last into the future,” Daniel said.

He added that a good integrated development has to be integrated, where people could park their car at one spot and get everything done on foot. It is also important that it is a place making project, whereby components within the project add value to each other, for instance it can lead a shopper to an art gallery next to a shopping mall.

“Last but not least is accessibility. We are not talking about entrances and exits but about the future, so a transportation hub within an integration project is important,” Daniel said.

The last session was by IKEA interior designer Aileen Malik who talked about “Inspiring and affordable home furnishing solutions”.
“Given today’s smaller living spaces, interior design has become more important because it is essential to make your small living space modern yet functional,” she said.

Among the tips she provided was to use transparent containers such as water jars and herb containers for small kitchens. “Transparent containers also facilitate a neat kitchen because you don’t have to look for the ingredients you want by checking containers one by one.”

She also shared that compartments and baskets are the must-have items to keep things tidy. “Utilise your wall! Your wall is your best friend to keep things organised.

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For more detailed reports on the two-day workshop series, read the Sept 30, 2016 issue of TheEdgeProperty.com pullout that comes with The Edge Financial Daily on Friday. Download TheEdgeProperty.com pullout here for free.