Still sexy, wrinkles and all

FROM a rubber estate to a self-contained high-end township, Bangsar is one of Kuala Lumpur’s real estate crown jewels.

In 1906, when Malaya was still under the British administration, London-based Kuala Lumpur Rubber Co Ltd set out to plant rubber trees in Kuala Lumpur to capitalise on the booming commodity.

The names of two board members of the company, Edouard Bunge and Alfred Grisar, were used to create the Bunge-Grisar rubber estate, or Bungsar Estate, which evolved and became today’s Bangsar.

The development of Bangsar Park, the first housing area here, began in 1969. From there, the company began selling its land to private buyers and, subsequently, Bangsar began experiencing rapid development. Bangsar Park was followed by Lucky Garden and its surrounding areas, Bangsar Baru and Bukit Bandaraya.

In the 1970s, Bangsar had become a housing suburb catering to baby boomers settling in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the earlier homes in Bangsar were landed properties which are still in demand to this day. Among these homes are single-storey terraced houses in Lucky Garden or Taman Lucky.

Information about Lucky Garden is limited due to its age. Henry Butcher Malaysia’s COO Tang Chee Meng (pictured, left) told TheEdgeProperty.com that as far as he knows, Lucky Garden’s single-storey terraced houses were transacted at around RM55,000 to RM60,000 way back in 1987.

Lucky Garden is located at the heart of Bangsar and is a mere 500m away from the main road, Jalan Maarof, and 1.7km from the Bangsar LRT station. It is surrounded by amenities. Besides the Bangsar LRT station, it also has shopping centres, a medical centre and shoplots.

Over the last two years, the average transacted price of single-storey terraced houses here has breached the million ringgit mark.

“The landed homes in Lucky Garden are still very much in demand among buyers and tenants even though they were built almost four decades ago,” says Zerin Properties head of research and consultancy Roja Rani (pictured, right) .

Records of past transactions have revealed the strong growth in value of these homes.

For example, according to data collated by Zerin Properties, 1,109 sq ft single-storey terraced houses were transacted between RM600,000 and RM680,000 in 2010, while in 2014 they were transacted between RM950,000 and RM1.2 million (no transaction of this size was recorded in 2015).

Henry Butcher Malaysia’s Tang noted that based on the Valuation and Property Services Department’s (JPPH) data, there was a drop in transactions for single-storey terraced houses in recent years while prices have remained high.

“It may be because there were not many units for sale – not many owners put up their houses for sale. Lucky Garden is still a popular location to stay in because of its prestigious Bangsar address and because of its proximity to the Kuala Lumpur city centre,” Tang shared.

According to data by TheEdgeProperty.com, Lucky Garden’s terraced houses have seen prices grow 19.5% to RM657 psf in 1Q2015 from RM550 psf in 1Q2012.

The current average asking price psf based on listings in TheEdgeProperty.com is at RM742 psf or at an average absolute asking price of RM1.6 million.

It must be noted that there were sharp falls in average price psf in 1Q2014 and 4Q2014 as only one transaction was closed in both quarters and the transactions were below market price.

Meanwhile, based on the average asking rentals in TheEdgeProperty.com, the current indicative average rental yield for terraced houses in Lucky Garden is 2.6%.

Tang said the price tag of just above RM1 million for the old terraced houses in Lucky Garden makes them attractive to those who want a landed home which is close to the city centre and with a prestigious address. “The outlook (for Lucky Garden) is still positive as there will always be a strong preference by KL-ites to stay in a Bangsar address,” added Tang.

Zerin’s Roja agrees with Tang that Lucky Garden is in high demand among genuine buyers due to the limited supply of this type of property in the primary market and its strategic location close to the city centre in a neighbourhood with established amenities.

However, the downside to these houses are that they are close to five decades old and many require some remodelling and renovation work which entail higher upfront cost.

This story first appeared in TheEdgeProperty.com pullout on April 1, 2016, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily

Calvin comments:

In 1970 My Neighbour Shifted to Lorong Maarof, Bangsar Park. They bought a 2 storey house for Rm20,000.

Today these houses are worth Rm2 millions.

Properties in Prime Locations with Limited Supply will always go up in Value if the Country's Economy is doing well.

Right now in Booming Iskandar a single storey house in Prime Location like Taman Molek or Taman Perling can still be purchased for Rm300,000 a unit.

These are the best investments if you could secure any for the long term like those in Bangsar.

If not this Undervalue Iskandar Stock will do

DAIMAN PROPERTIES

Daiman has lands and assets still priced in ancient book value.

Regards,

Calvin