Share
Puchong folks may well see the area’s tallest building to date if a proposed 35-storey serviced apartment tower in the Tiara Mutiara development becomes a reality.
According to Mutiara Johan Project Management Sdn Bhd, the tower in Phase 2 of Tiara Mutiara will be launched by the end of the year.
The RM250 million development stretches over three acres of freehold land in the Kuala Lumpur side of Puchong.
General manager of property Chai Ko Foong says the plan for Phase 2, comprising serviced apartments and shops, is still awaiting approval, which he hopes will come in one or two months.
“This phase will also be Green Building Index-certified. It will be higher-end unlike Phase 1. We will put in a supermarket and a fitness club with its own pool. On the ground floor, we will have a long boulevard with alfresco dining. This phase will complement Phase 1,” he tells City & Country.
Four towers, including the one with 35 storeys, will house some 400 serviced apartments as well as retail lots which the developer will retain for the supermarket and fitness club.
Tiara Mutiara
Phase 1 of Tiara Mutiara, dubbed The Crown @ KL Puchong, received good response when it was launched early this year, offering 21 units of 3 and 4-storey shops and 403 partly furnished serviced apartments. These are 90% and 80% sold respectively. The developer has held on to some corner retail lots.
The gross development value of Phase 1 is RM170 million and it spans over three acres.
The apartments have built-ups of 668 to 1,227 sq ft and are priced from RM235,000 to RM512,000. According to Chai, some of these units are two-in-one, meaning they have two separate entrances, doorbells, water meters and electric meters, giving the owner the flexibility to rent out the whole unit or half the unit.
“We have a 17-storey serviced apartment block, 20 units of 3-storey shopoffices, one 4-storey corner shopoffice, six levels of parking and facilities on the fifth floor. All serviced apartments come with one parking bay, although the bigger units have two.
“Our two-in-one concept gives buyers options on what they could do with their units. We are doing something different yet affordable in Puchong. We are targeting young working adults and couples. In fact, most of them are first and second-time buyers,” he says.
Besides a three-tier security system, the serviced apartment component features a leisure pool, a children’s wading pool, gymnasium, multi-purpose room, playground and convenience shops.
The Crown @ KL Puchong has a combined net saleable area (shops and serviced apartments) of 434,778 sq ft and 672 parking bays.
Mutiara Johan, founded in 1990 as a construction firm, ventured into property development five years later. While the latter is now its core business, the company’s subsidiaries are involved in construction, property management and car park management.
With a focus on boutique developments and a landbank of 100 acres, the developer has completed 5,000 units of property in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, Genting and Bukit Tinggi.
Casa Residency
In May last year, Mutiara Johan launched the RM160 million freehold Casa Residency serviced apartments within the vicinity of the Puduraya Bus Terminal in downtown KL. According to Chai, it will be the nearest residential tower to the government’s proposed 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower.
“Sales at Casa Residency improved after the mass rapid transit (MRT) line proposal with two underground stations in the vicinity was announced. Our project is also near a light rail transit (LRT) station (Plaza Rakyat) and a monorail station (Times Square). It is within walking distance of Bukit Bintang and everything is there … this area is more happening than KLCC,” he says.
Of the 188 serviced apartments offered for sale, more than 80% have been taken up. The remaining 20 are mostly larger units which the developer plans to market overseas.
These units will be housed in a 27-storey block sited on less than one acre of land. Also included are five levels of parking, 21 levels of serviced apartments and one level of retail units. The developer will keep the retail units for rent.
Casa Residency will be completed by the end of next year.
The partly furnished units in Casa Residency are tagged from RM442,000 to RM1.03 million or an average RM900 psf. The project is targeted at foreign buyers because of strong response from expatriates to the developer’s Casa Mutiara project just two lots away that was completed in 2007. It is mostly occupied by expatriates, including business travellers and students.
“Casa Residency was officially launched in May last year. We had roadshows overseas first before selling in Malaysia. Some 30% to 40% of buyers in Casa Mutiara were expats and Casa Residency is seeing the same situation with many repeat buyers.
“When we launched Casa Mutiara in 2004, the economy was soft and sales were pretty slow. So we went to Hong Kong, China, Tokyo, Taipei, Macau and Singapore and found good response there. We sold at about RM400 psf at the time but prices have since doubled to RM800 psf at subsale level. We also offered guaranteed rental returns for two years back then,” says Chai.
He notes that the current rental yield in the residential market there is attractive at about 7% to 8%, adding that this and capital appreciation have become a magnet for sales.
Casa Residency will feature better furnishings and appliances than Casa Mutiara and like Tiara Mutiara, its 3-bedroom units will come with two entrances.
“Our concept is compact yet practical and this is good for both tenants and owners. Casa Residency will be completed by year-end,” says Chai.
The buyer’s profile for Casa Residency is a mix of owner-occupiers and investors. The foreign buyers are mainly frequent business travellers and those from countries that often experience natural disasters. There are also a number of Malaysia My Second Home participants.
Mutiara Johan has RM340 million worth of ongoing projects and will be launching three new phases next year in its existing Cheras, Rawang and Gombak developments that are worth RM400 million in total.
A 5 to 6-storey shopoffice project called Mutiara Opus@Cheras will be built on the company’s final piece of land in its 10-acre Cheras Business Centre, the latest phase (Phase 3) of which was completed in September 2003. The developer is still finalising the details of the project.
Mutiara Johan will also launch the final phase of Mutiara Residency @ Rawang. The concept of the project in Gombak — Mutiara Gombak — will be similar to that of Tiara Mutiara, says Chai.
This article appeared in City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 858, May 16-22, 2011
