I was in Penang recently to visit my sister’s new baby. I took the opportunity to drop by my condominium which will be rented out soon. I love condos. I feel it’s hard to buy a landed home if the landed home does not come with a club house these days. A few days ago, I dropped by my ‘affordable’ condo in Penang last weekend and took some latest photos. The image on the left shows one part of the roof top garden which span the whole three blocks of the condo.
Total size of the garden? 20,000 sq ft. Not huge but definitely not small either. That’s 20 units of 1,000 sq ft condos. My own unit was undergoing a simple renovation so that I can choose to rent it out fully furnished soon. For Penang, I think it’s appropriate that any condo between RM500 – RM550 per sq ft be considered affordable?
Anyway, just minutes away would be Eastern & Oriental’s Straits Quay which is already over RM1,000 per sq ft. My affordable condo was completed in 2011 and its called The Peak Residences. It has an awesome rooftop garden which I think is unique. You can have a group your friends having barbecue party right at the top of the condo even.
Glad to say the management committee is very active and maintenance has been good thus far. Look at some of the latest photos I took a few days ago. Oh yeah, if the maintenance is not good, that’s possibly the end of the road for any high-rise. Coming to the price, actually it remains affordable. Whether it’s per sq ft or even absolute price. Honestly, prices in Penang is already slightly higher than those in KL, comparatively. Any 1,000 sq ft condo units, it’s hard to get anything below RM600,000.
Some of the latest listings as per the image. My unit is 1,100 sq ft and it’s only around RM600,000 or lower as per my agent even though listing wise, the prices seem to be higher. He said these days there has been cases where the owners are willing to sell at crazily low prices. I reminded him that the prices these owners bought and the lower prices still represent good profits. A good friend who owns a few landed properties said that my condo should easily be valued at RM900,000. I laughed and said, I don’t think it will be anytime soon. Will rent out, then wait and see what happens when the Penang property market recovers,in tandem with that of all major markets in Malaysia. To those who believe RM600,000 is a good price, it’s good to buy today. Happy buying, staying or waiting.
written on 23 May 2016
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