These days articles in the newspapers are getting pretty descriptive and perhaps flowery. Some of these articles were written as part of the advertisement package and thus it must be something which meets the expectations of the developers. FYI, I hate it when developers cannot even afford to pay the usual writing fee to have a good article to support their development. At the very least before launch, during launch and after launch as well as one more additional article should accompany the project? No? Okay, maybe my standards are just too high but I do notice many developers do this extremely well. From the mass media newspapers to the business magazines to online portals and even PR agencies, they take every opportunity to highlight their projects and them. This should be the right way to go because today, I have yet to find one media which can claim to have every single property investor reading only them. Today, let’s just browse through some of the nice terms used and their potential meaning(s).
‘Close to / Next to Nature’ – whenever this is used, rest assured, it would not be in a matured neighbourhood. It may be next to a secondary forest or even at a place which is slightly out of the usual routes. Nothing wrong ok, in fact I like this word better than ‘next to MRT’ station. Just a personal choice.
‘Exclusivity’ – Unless the total units are less than 50, this word may not be that correctly used. Let’s be very clear, are you sure a 100 units of condo, each with 4 persons staying and a total of 400 pax sharing most of the time a pretty small swimming pool is called exclusive? Hope everyone understand that if YOU are the developer and you have a huge piece of land today, you would maximise the number of units to make it affordable and easier to sell.
‘Luxury Condo’ – I saw this ‘Luxury Condo only RM299xxx’ on my way to office everyday. It’s on a wooden signboard next to the road on a lamp post. Wow, this is truly luxury’. RM299xxx is already a ‘luxury’ price and the way the advertisement is done, you can immediately understand the ‘luxurious’ treatment you are getting.
‘NEAR’ to the city – Please do not ask how many km. Ask how long does it take to be at the city during the usual working days. In developed countries, they are now using the duration instead of km which is very misleading because 20km away does not mean that it would take a longer time compared to an area which is just 6.5km away from the city.
Surrounded by greenery – Most of the time, this means that there are going to be a few more trees than usual and there would be a garden for everyone to walk etc. Do not think of this as those resort style kind of environment. Reason is, if it is truly resort-like, they would use ‘resort-like’ instead of surrounded by greenery.
Exquisite – I have no idea what this word would want to say for the property. Haha. Low density? Luxurious? Special or customised design? If these might be its meaning, then it’s best to use these words instead.
Eco-friendly – There are standards for this, those Green awards? The words should be ‘Green Certified’ followed by what’s the award they got for the development. So, if the development is not a certified one, eco-friendly simply meant they include one or two features into the development and would call it ‘eco-friendly’. Does not mean much actually. Oh yeah, I also do not mind that my development is not ‘eco-friendly’. I just want it to be equipped with good facilities, that’s all.
There are lots more of these terms being used. Nice to read. Just try to understand what they mean by asking the sales person. No assumptions because even low-density developments these days may mean 500 units while a high density development can be 2,000 units or higher. Gone are the days when car parks of 5 levels are considered high. Today, 8 levels may just be the usual. Haha. Oh yeah, if the brochure said, ‘multiple award winning developer’, take a look at how many and when did the developer won them. It might have been won a few years ago or one older project might have won many. It still does not mean that the development you are buying is the award winning one. Happy searching and buying.
written on 30 Nov 2014
next suggested article: Tips on ‘Good Location’ to buy.
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