De Centrum Residences, SOHO and Mall construction is heading towards key handover. New estimated date is January 2016 while the mall called Gallerie will be open to public on February 2016.
One of the current iconic landmark of the area is the beautifully decorated roundabout which has got the De Centrum City sign on.
The pricing for Rimbawan Residence has been announced. There are essentially 4 Types of units. Type A to C are standard units while the villa units are limited edition units.
In terms of pricing, Rimbawan Residence is more pricey than De Centrum Residences. A 2 room unit (Type A) is roughly around 589 psf while De Centrum Residence unit was around 470 psf. translating into a 25% increase.
To generate some interest in the company's about to be launched Rimbawan Residence @ De Centrum, Protasco will be inviting 2 property figures to give talks on 19 November. Location is at the sales gallery just next to current De Centrum Mall (aka Gallerie). Mystery gift and lunch included.
The De Centrum City mall will be called Gallerie @ De Centrum which will open in February 2016
70% of the shopping centre has been leased out to tenants who will operate a fitness centre, convenience store, pharmacies, book store, fast-food restaurants and a supermarket
Next project would be Rimbawan Residences @ De Centrum, a high end residential development which will be launched 4th quarter 2015
There will be a shuttle bus from De Centrum City to KVMRT (Klang Valley Mass Rail Transit) Kajang Station.
In preparation for the Rimbawan Residences @ De Centrum launch, the developer Protasco has updated their website and uploaded some artist impressions of the envisioned components in the De Centrum City master plan. It includes a park, waterfront in its master plan which reminds me of Desa Park City, Kepong.
Mitsui Outlet Park Mall is a mall located in the south of Klang Valley, right in Airport City Sepang district. It is the first Mitsui outlet mall to be opened in South East Asia.
It's around 45 minutes from De Centrum area. The retail outlets there are much bigger than what you get in normal shopping complexes due to cheaper rentals. Expect to see year round sales here. Currently the brands are all the standard Nike, Adidas, Zalora, Padini etc..., basically the variety of shops there are not varied enough.
I've been to the outlet malls in Las Vegas where there's much more brands. For example in this outlet mall only got only 1 surf brand Quiksilver but in Vegas there s Stussy, Ripcurl , Hurley, Reef Billabong etc.
Overall design is ok, well litted with the use of lots of indirect lighting. However, foot traffic seems quite poor, there were very few visitors around and will take some time before business picks up. I also noticed there wasn't a food court around, just a handful of Japanese restaurants around. It's quite odd that an outlet mall of this size do not have a food court where people can mix and match to order their food.
Traffic flow to De Centrum development project was crazy heavy during the mornings just coming out of the Kajang toll. Seems like everyone exit here to go towards Cyberjaya, Putrajaya and towards the LEKAS toll. Traffic is expected to get worst in the near future as more people find jobs in Cyberjaya and Putrajaya.
Called up the sales office today and the sales person mentioned that the Residences block will be ready in October 2015, buyers probably can take the key in November while the SOHO block will probably be one month behind. On the mall side, it will only be opened in February 2016.
From the construction progress, the developer should be able to meet the deadline. Anyway, the S&P was stamped late so even if they don’t meet the November deadline they would still be able to drag it until December or January 2016. The second question is whether the quality is up to standards.
One of the realizations after purchasing a studio or 1 bedroom unit is finding out how small it actually is. It makes space planning of the unit more important as each square feet counts.
De centrum residence's 1+1 bedroom unit is 574 sqft while the SOHO units are only 447 sqft. Most people like me who focus on absolute price and forget that 600 sqft and below is a very small space to work with.
Ghost Chair
Ghost Chair with arm rest
Recently attended a short gun (3 days only) interior design course and learned how to make a small space/room look bigger. One technique is to use furniture piece are transparent/translucent.
One such furniture piece are ghost chairs. It's basically a plastic looking chair made from transparent polycarbonate material (acrylic). It's kind of logical why it could make the room look big because it makes the eye thinks that there is nothing there because it's transparency. Pairing the ghost chairs with a tempered glass rounded table will enhance the effect also. If rounded tables are not available, pair the ghost chairs with white tables and white walls it will also make the room/space look bigger.
Ghost Chair paired with white walls and white table
Ghost furniture to make room look big
Ghost furniture - See through rounded glass table and ghost chair
I'm not so sure about old people knocking into such furniture in the dark but hey SOHO and 1 bedroom units are not aimed for them anyway.
Ghost Chair Price in Malaysia
A check on Lelong.com shows it costs around RM300 for 1 ghost chair. These are replica units of the original, the original ghost chairs were designed by Phillippe Stark and are called Louis Cartell ghost chairs. However, it should be still usable and would be an alternative for the budget conscious person.
De Centrum project is conveniently located just out of the Kajang Toll. It is right at the intersection of 6 major highways. It is currently the only high rise in the area. Its nearest competition is probably Univ360 (Serdang) and The Louvre (Country Heights Kajang).
Kajang Toll (KL Seremban Highway) to De Centrum Site Project.
I really need this rack in this condominium. It will make the place more green. A good friend of mine installed the rack inside his double storey landed house. The location was just at the airwell, so the plants are getting ample sunlight without the pest problem.
See here my are pots of bird eye chilli and rosemary herb. These scrubs are very prone to insect attacks therefore placing them in a protective space such as this will reduce scrub damage.
One of the reason I was attracted to the Decentrum project was that the developer had a masterplan for the entire area surrounding the project. A masterplan is basically long term strategy, it outlines what is the vision of the company regarding the project, this provides a guide for the developer to maximize the value of their properties.
The Decentrum City developer Protasco envisions the area around Jalan Ikram to be an integrated development with retail, office, service residences and MICE elements. The developer Protasco will launch the project one by one on the parcel of land around Jalan Ikram.
The gross development value of the entire masterplan is 10bil.
The future projects described in the Masterplan includes :
20 storey, low density serviced apartments
3 storey retail mall
9 storey SOHO tower
Entertainment venues
Floating park
Stylish F&B outlets
Building-to-building pedestrian links
Underground parking & road connectivity
Bicycle & motorcycle lanes
Intelligent traffic planning
Landscaped gardens & sky parks
Office towers
Convention center
Hotel
High Rise Skyscrapers everywhere
Floating gardens
Walkways and bicycle lanes
Bicycle friendly place
Apparently, the master plan is designed by world renowned urban planners Duany and Players-Zyberk from United States. http://www.dpz.com/
The urbanization trend where people from other states in Malaysia migrate to the greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley region is undeniable. The primary reason is because this is where the jobs are. These people who come migrate over will create a demand for housing. As such, one of the key themes in property investing is to buy where the jobs are.
There is no shortage of medium income executives around Decentrum City Bangi. Just 10minutes away is a road called Jalan Ayer Hitam where most of the big bank’s data center are. If you drive along this road, you will see Public Bank IT & Training Center, Maybank Training Center, RHB Data Center, CIMB Training Center. This area was a government initiative to drive banks to place their data centers outside of the city of Kuala Lumpur as prudent risk management. Each of these centers are as big as 5 football fields. In Public Bank IT & Training Center alone there is already around 600 staff stationed there. Add up the staff in Maybank, CIMB and RHB total should be around 1800 staff. In addition to that Petronas and TNB have got very big research centers here also. These people currently stay in Puchong, Seri Kembangan, Serdang and Kajang area which is much further away from Decentrum City.
Therefore, I predict that Decentrum City Bangi will be able to satisfy the pent up demand for housing for mid level executives in this area.
Above the De Centrum mall, there are 2 blocks of premises, one for De Centrum Residences while the other for De Centrum SOHO . The Decentrum Residences block was launched first and the SOHO (Small Office Home Office) block was launched later. When the residences unit was launched, the SOHO units were not for sale. Sales person mentioned that the SOHO block was initially pledged to be built as a 4 star hotel chain. However later the talks broke down and it was launched as SOHO units.
Size wise and features, the Decentrum Residences and SOHO units look like very similiar products but if studied closely there are some subtle differences between the 2 products. Both are single room units.
Below is the layout of Decentrum Residence and SOHO. Studying the floor layout shows that De Centrum Residences floor space is separated by rooms while the SOHO units is one big room.
De Centrum Residences Floor Layout
De Centrum SOHO Floor Layout
A brief summary between the Decentrum Residences and SOHO units are listed in the table below.
SOHO
Residence
Sold without parking lot
Comes with parking lot (accessories package
Not designed to have rooms, open flow
Comes with clearly designated rooms
No laundry area
Comes with laundry yard
More expensive electricity and water due to commercial title status
Normal residential tariff
Full height windows
Half height windows
Residences is like a standard home with all designated spaces like dining, washing area etc while SOHO is more like just a hotel room which focuses only on providing a place to sleep.
At first glance, it would seem like the SOHO has less amenities. The units also do not come with car park. However, SOHO units has got a market for it, they are designed for modern lifestyles whereby the person living in it only uses the place to rest while other stuff like washing of clothes, food and transport are outsourced to external operators. A person staying in a SOHO is someone who does not cooks, washes his clothes and travels using public transport or works within close vicinity. The success of SOHO units will largely depend the facilities and amenities around the property. The developer needs to ensure that within very close distance, there are laundrette shops (Kedai Dobi), restaurants and public transport. This is why a SOHO unit is most suitable to be built within a integrated development with shops, offices and hotels within the same development.
So why choose SOHO ?
Working adult bachelor
If you're a bachelor living a fast pace lifestyle, the SOHO would be better option. When you're out there busy earning big money, the last thing you need to worry is to wash your laundry, your time is best spent on earning money, leave the laundry to the dry cleaners. You also will appreciate the SOHO design which is more free flowing with no wall partitions. The SOHO is very suitable for a single occupant living.
AirBnb or homestay
AirBnb is a listing site which allows people to rent out their place. People who own a room or place lists their property in AirBnb and people who are looking for a place will be matched. SOHO units are very suitable to be used as homestay property. As mentioned SOHO units are more for resting so using it for shortterm rentals on AirBnb would be good.
Why choose Residences ?
Couples or small family
If you're a couple or a bachelor who likes to host, then the residences block would be more suitable for you.
Taken just right out of the Kajang Toll Exit at Kajang Seremban Highway. Progress seems to have slowed a bit after a slight boost of construction activities over the past 2 months. At the moment the verdict is the developer can be able to deliver the product within the promised period.
Developer is now collecting TNB Electrical Deposit from purchasers to register for electricity supply. Initial deposit is RM 500 and above. This means the next progressive payment is coming soon.
The next progressive payment would be for
2f : The sewerage works serving the said building
2g : The drains serving the said building
2h : The roads serving the said building
This is going to happen soon as the developer has started to do the roads serving the building.
