City&Country: Seringin Residences offers home within a home

Fancy a home within a home? Although uncommon in condominium developments, this is exactly what See Hoy Chan Sdn Bhd’s (SHCSB) latest project — Seringin Residences — in Kuala Lumpur’s Jalan Klang Lama offers. Some of the condos come with a built-in studio apartment.

The studio has its own entrance, an attached bathroom, built-in wardrobe and a kitchenette for light cooking — all the essentials a young single adult, a young married couple or even an elderly couple need to live comfortably.

The owners of the condo could also create a partition to separate the studio apartment from the rest of the home. “These units are meant for extended families,” explains Joe Tan, SHCSB’s executive vice-president.

The 435 sq ft studio apartments come with the larger condos (overall built-up: 2,638 sq ft) in the project.

Seringin Residences is situated in the mature and established neighbourhood of Happy Gardens, off Jalan Klang Lama. It has a GDV of over RM500 million and will be officially launched on Sept 10.
Located on a 6.4-acre freehold site that was acquired in 2009 for RM40 million, Seringin Residences features two 25-storey towers with 542 units priced from RM530,000 to RM4.3 million. Towers A and B are 80% and 60% sold respectively following pre-launch sales to registrants. The maintenance fee, inclusive of sinking fund, is 26 sen psf.

According to Tan, this high-end project is targeted at the increasingly affluent population in the area and the younger generation of homeowners who want to stay close to their family but would like something more attuned to current trends.

“This is a mature neighbourhood and the children of some of the people living here have grown up and say they want to stay in Jalan Klang Lama. But there are no nice condos for them. So when we created Seringin Residences, we knew there was demand for this type of product.”

Each tower has 222 units with built-ups of 1,523 to 2,638 sq ft and 40 units with built-ups of 1,707 to 2,378 sq ft. The latter come with a lanai while the others do not.

There are also six garden villas in Tower A and four in Tower B with built-ups of 2,928 to 4,024 sq ft and four penthouses in each tower with built-ups of 6,503 to 6,760 sq ft. One penthouse and three garden villas have been sold so far.

“The garden villas are special because they make you feel like you’re in a landed home,” says Tan. “You can drive your car up to your unit and enter through a private entrance.”

The penthouses have their own rooftop garden and swimming pool. Each unit comes with a private garage with motorised shutters and eight parking bays.

The two towers are linked by an activity podium that houses a gym overlooking the 50m swimming pool and a function hall that comes with a gourmet kitchen. The command and security centre is located next to the podium.

A 1km bicycle and jogging track surrounds the development. The developer says it will provide the residents with bicycles if they wish to ride from one end to the other.

Sustainable Application of Green Energy
About 1.2 acres of the site have been set aside for the Sustainable Application of Green Energy (SAGE) building. The complex, which was completed in May, houses the sales office and three show units. According to Tan, it will be refurbished for residents to use as a community centre once the project is completed in 2014. The SAGE building will have function rooms, an eco-discovery centre with a lounge area and a library with study and tuition rooms.

Tan says the main purpose of this RM12 million, 2-storey complex is to create awareness of energy conservation and care for the environment.

It is outfitted with green technology features, including photovoltaic cells, inverter air conditioners, energy-saving light fittings, condensate water harvesting and heat pump exchangers to minimise energy and resource consumption. “The solar panels will contribute 50% of the energy needs of the SAGE,” Tan says.

The pièce de résistance is the rooftop organic garden, which grows various vegetables. The produce is being sold to the staff and the money collected is put into the management fund, which will be used in the maintenance of the development. A full-time gardening crew is employed to ensure the garden flourishes.

“We will also encourage the residents to plant their own vegetables,” Tan says. “Seringin Residences, I believe, is the only project that has a rooftop organic garden plot.”

Specially landscaped areas with trees and ponds surround the complex for families to enjoy. Tan says there is even space for children to camp on the grounds. Adding to the lush surroundings is a herb garden with 60 species and a mature vertical garden above a pond.

Seringin — which is the Malay name for bryophyllum pinnatum, more commonly known as the life plant or floppers — represents the development’s green ideology and the developer’s intention to create a holistic living environment, Tan reveals.

The development is situated very close to the Maju Expressway, which connects to Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and Kuala Lumpur. Just behind the development, a Chinese primary school is under construction.

Despite the uncertain global economic climate and its effect on the local economy, Tan is confident the development will not stall because sales revenue has covered construction cost.

Apart from Seringin Residences, he says SHCSB will be focusing on its 15-acre Damansara Uptown Phase II development in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya. The project is located in the middle of Uptown Square, between HSBC — where the Fajar Baru supermarket used to be — and Public Bank.

Says Tan, “We will pay a lot of attention to this mixed-use development, which has a GDV of about RM1.4 billion and is scheduled to be completed in 2015.”

Another notable project is the build-and-sell Tujuh d’wangsa in Titiwangsa, KL. The exclusive seven-bungalow project on a 0.87-acre site is to be completed in October this year. The 3-storey units come with a swimming pool and lift each. Prices start at RM4 million while the built-ups are from 5,255 to 7,146 sq ft.

This article appeared in City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 874, Sep 5-11, 2011