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.
