PROPCAFE Review : Cristal Residence @ Cyberjaya By Villamas

Cristal Residence is another Villamas Project in Cyberjaya after its Serin Residency launch in 2010. Serin Residency provided both lowrise and highrise condominium and Cristal Residence is offering both highrise and landed property.

Location

The site is opposite D’Melor (one of a few proper family size condos in Cyberjaya). But if you want to be precise, then it is at inner road of Jalan Fauna1 besides MK land first generation apartment at Cyberjaya called Cyberia Crescent 1 and 2. Or it is besides its first project Serin Residency (depend on where you see it) which will be completed next year. The entrance is facing Symphony Hills project by UEM but the ground is higher than Symphony Hills. When Symphony Hills’ Verdi is ready, you will see multiple highrises in this precint.

Although it is opposite Multimedia University but one needs to go through the inner road and get out from the site to reach MMU, which is quite a distance. Perhaps students there can tell me the slip road. Based on my short memory, you need to go through a big round to reach the entrance of this development. I would not say the location is great in Cyberjaya since I always like “visible” properties from main road (entrance). Well, it could be just me.

Concept and Size

It is CondoVilla concept where the project consists of both highrise (2 blocks) and landed property. There are 350 units condominium with the size from 1302sf (typeA), 1521f (type B corner), 1579sf (type C Corner) and 3189sf (penthouse). All type A, B, and C comes with 3+1 rooms sit on around 11 acres land.

50 units linkvilla will be available for sale in future. There are basically two types: 3 storey (3,000sf) and 4 storey (3,500sf). The pricing is estimated at Rm1.4m to RM1.6m. Land is approx. 22x80sf

Is Condovilla concept works? Well, one can refer to Nadia and Breezeway project at Desa Parkcity and of course, also Mirage of the lake at Cyberjaya. It is definitely better for highrise owner than landed. Why I say so? Normally, demographic and profile of owners will be better for condovilla development than just condo development since there are landed and more expensive properties sit together with condo units. However, according to the developer, the linkvilla owner will only pay maintenance base on the footprint rather than built up, so they will pay similar maintenance fee like condo owners which work well for linkvilla owner there.

Based on my limited information from scale model and video, the landscape looks reasonable good and the linkvilla should have a nice pool fronting view and landscape to enjoy. I won’t say the façade is fantastic but it is pretty modern given its relatively low pricing.

Layout

Forget about penthouse, basically there are 3 layouts to choose. 1302sf is the intermediate unit which I quite like its layout. 3+1 with two bedrooms that comes with proper sliding door view. Nice rectangle size of living room which looks spacious thanks to its open kitchen (some may not like it). Perhaps if you need wet kitchen, you may “force” it in your yard (:)).

The rest of the layout looks very practical as well with squarish living room (thumbs up). Type B has two balconies and Type C has also two balconies but both can be accessible to each other! Overall, good layout!

Water pump sits at level 18 (keke…make sure you don’t hook up with this magic number). No sky lounge or garden on top but there is leisure deck at 2x floor (opps, couldn’t remember).

Pricing

This is the critical one (hehe). Villamas always price their project slightly below the market eg. Verde at Ara Dsara and Serin Residency at Cyberjaya.

Cristal is the same. While similar size of units in symphony hills verdi n mirage are heading to rm550psf to rm600psf ( old dmelor is near to rm400psf), the cheapest unit come with west facing/Symphony Hills is priced at RM598k before 10% and 5% (1st 50 customers – Two Option LTV90 borrow will get credit note after VP and LTV70 borrower 4.5% instead will be offset by second billing) rebates. It works out about RM402psf net i.e.RM523k (second floor 1302sf). Well, not sure about additional RM10k discount for registered purchaser still applicable. If it is, it will start from RM392psf.

If one prefer better facing i.e. Putrajaya or D’Melor then he needs to fork out additional RM30k. By the way, every floor increase about RM7psf, so you guys can works out the figure for each floor. It won’t run too much away.

DIBS? No! Don’t be sad, developer is giving another form of DIBS. 4.5% interest rebates will be paid back to buyer every 6months. So, technically, it is sort of covered.

Block A will only be launched in later stage so there are still price push factor to enter now.

What’s free?

Kitchen cabinet (sorry no hood and hob), four airconditioners, plaster ceiling, and fitted bathrooms. There are two carpark lots for each type but Type C is given side by side carpark lots rather than tandem lots (Type B).

Invest and Ownstay?

With 15% rebates, it makes thing easier for investors. RM400psf is hard to find nowadays. But it is Cyberjaya! There are many people still not convince about this place and it is always debate on Cyberjaya (oh! Again?). Rental opposite the development (D’Melor) is around RM2,500 up. So, Cristal Residence seems workable (not to say better concept and façade) but the supplies of future completion units in Cyberjaya may kill the yield.

Ownstay? If someone is thinking to move over Cyberjaya to be part of a modern city in the making, I think it is a good buy. Give it few more years with amenities are ready, this type of size and concept may fly. There are not many this sort of condominiums around. You can count on GardenView (not doing well though), Mirage of the Lake, Verdi at Symphony Hills, Country Heights Villa there. And that’s it.

There are two scenarios here. 1st, Cyberjaya workers remain status quo and not willing to stay in Cyberjaya in 3 years time. In this case, it is hard to flip. But, the price is below Verdi and Mirage, so you still have some competitive edge there. Worst case, you can still do rental, but may “just” survive (opps students market).

2nd Scenario, Cyberjaya boom in 3 to 4 years time. Knowledge workers at mid manager level may choose to stay at Cyberjaya (not to say outsiders), then this type of condominium will be highly sought in Cyberjaya. It is mass market and sub 600k could be a sweet spot for family ownstay choice. So to sell it around RM650k up becomes more possible.

There are no BBB mood in the sales office but those SouthEast facing units are taken up pretty fast. If you are more sensitive to price, then facing west units are still many for you to choose.

So how? (Favourite words from Editors here)

Ownstay, I think it is a good buy. However, for investment, there are more research works need to do and of course to have luck as well in 3 years time (hope the above info helps). Good Luck!

http://www.cristal.com.my/

Latest Landed Villa facade – Show unit