PROPCAFE™ Review : Eco Grandeur @ Puncak Alam By Eco World

When comes to Eco World’s new project, it would be hard to resist not to go and see what kind of magic they are going to put into the project, especially new township. Everyone know Eco World is truly a township developer and of course new township nowadays means long distance away from KL City Centre. However, Eco World never shy on its development’s location, regardless how “ulu” or far it is. The charms of Eco World and Tan Sri Liew’s vision always lure many followers to join his party. Eco Grandeur project is not different.

Location

Eco World, this time, showcases their Puncak Alam development. Along journey to Eco Grandeur, PROPCAFE noticed a big arch signage of “Welcome to Kuala Selangor” and the site of the project is at Ijok based on the location map.

If you try to get here from Guthrie Corridor Expressway, you will go through a long stretch of narrow single carriageway named by famous footballer – Persiaran Mokhtar Dahari (see photo below) and pass through few key developments like Cahaya SPk, Kayangan Height, Sunway Alam Suria etc.

PROPCAFE previously did visit another boutique project nearby called Green Hills Residence and the feeling that time was it is so FAR and DEEP in! After 4 years, the earlier phases of the development are completed but there are still no changes on the road condition there and Yes, we yet to reach Puncak Alam. One needs to further drive through MKH’s HillPark project and sales gallery before you can get to the sales gallery and site of Eco Granduer. From Cahaya SPK, it will take about 17km to reach Eco Granduer and approximate about 20mins journey.

From the site, by turning into right from the junction then left, it will lead you to LATAR highway which eventually can connect to Kuala Selangor, Rawang and Kuala Lumpur. From the LATAR Toll to Duta Toll In KL, approximately it is about 30+km. For time spend, you better try it yourself as it is just unpredictable nowadays by using the highway. The access road from Eco Grandeur to LATAR (about 8km) will be upgraded according to Eco World and the new access road to “joint” the LATAR (see map above) will be built in future. If one choose to use Jalan Kuala Selangor to LATAR highway, you will see Bandar Sri Coefield at your right hand side before you get to the highway. To note here, unlike Eco Majestics at Semenyih or Tan Sri’s previous pet project like Setia Alam, this Eco Grandeur has no direct connection or interchange “infront” the development to link existing highways, Eco Granduer residents need to drive a distance to reach both sides of major highways abovementioned.

Good news to Eco Grandeurian is the recent green light of Damansara-Shah Alam expressway (DASH) project which is within 10km from the site according to sales personnel. The DASH will definitely bring Puncak Alam nearer to Petaling Jaya!

Project Information

Eco Granduer is a leasehold Gated and Guarded property that sits at a 1400 acres land in Puncak Alam. The nearest projects at this moment are HillPark project by MKH. Well, not sure how HillPark named its location as Shah Alam North, this is surely Puncak Alam at Kuala Selangor district. This huge parcel of land from Eco World will house  about 11,000 residential units over the next 10-15 years. Out of 1400 acres, 200 acres has been allocated for commercial purposes. No bungalow lands are available for sales unlike its other projects. While no plan being disclosed at the moment, it will likely to have shoplots, offices and some service apartments there. The adjacent of Eco Grandeur, Eco World will start is Eco Business Park V which is the 528 acres gated integrated green industry hub next year.  280-acre of land has been allocated for Rumah Selangorku project in Eco Grandeur which will be developed in phases over years.

A mall like Setia City Mall? The answer from sales personnel was “Maybe but nothing has firmed up”. So, for time being, nearest mall would still be Setia City Mall at Setia Alam which will take you about 20mins to reach there.

Eco Grandeur Sales Gallery and Site. Show units will only be available in 2017.

Continuation of Eco World Signature Architecture Design?

Of course! Eco World’s signature bridge will be built even though current site is a flat land. It means man-made waterway and lake is expected to be there.

 

What more do you expect from common garden and area in Eco Grandeur township?

Eco World will not compromise its lavish landscape and landmark resting area. Grand, Grand, Grand as always. A safe cycling path and walkway will be provided in whole township.

Amenities

Currently, amenities like schools and shops are available in the existing communities like MKH’s HillPark, Glomac’s Saujana Utama, and IJM’s Shah Alam 2. UiTM campus is not far from the site.

Eco World loves to create “dream home” and you will not be disappointed if you look for a home with parks and lakes. Residents get to enjoy a green and healthy living lifestyle with a 62 acres of Dragonfly lake and 60 acres town park (see photos below) in Eco Grandeur (open for public)

In term of eateries and more lifestyle activities, based on current environment, one may need to travel 20-30km to Shah Alam, Klang, and Petaling Jaya.

Eco World is a responsible township developer, therefore, this place is expected to add more amenities  and business activities with its commercial plots mentioned above. How long would it takes? Standard answer from township developer will tell you 5 to 10 years.

What is on the plate this round?

The very first preview in Eco Granduer sees Eco World presenting two parcels of landed for landed home lovers. Both are to be completed within 3 years period. It comes with modern Victorian facade, it is a safe and evergreen design. Unfortunately, nothing can beat the façade in its Eco Sanctuary development in Kota Kemuning.

The first parcel comes with 1000 units called Graham Garden, with the size of 20x65sf and the built-up from 1521sf. Yes, ONE THOUSAND units, no typo here. But do not conclude anything first as we are yet to talk about other factors.

Type A – Priced from rm490k before the rebate* and the smallest built-up that comes with 3 rooms (1 room at the ground floor with sliding door and garden view). This is the only type that comes with double volume in dinning area in Graham Garden. This is customise for those who like double volume setting and bigger space for master and second bedroom.

*Tentatively all types come with 5% rebate.

Type B – Priced from rm525k before rebate, 3 rooms and no room at ground floor. This is designed for buyers who like space for living and dining area with garden view.

Type C – Same price as Type B but come with 4 rooms and a reduced size in living and dining area. Practical layout for slightly bigger size family. Based on Malaysian’s prefer, this one will be the hotcake!

Type D – Priced from rm560k with slightly bigger built up of 1,743 sf. The extra built up comes from the scarify of your garden as it is fully extended to make space for bedroom at ground and upper floor. This is the typical design that most of the Malaysian will do during their renovation.

PROPCAFE was informed that the guest room at the ground will be around the size of 10ft x 10ft. So, do you scaling to see how it fits the bed and table there for your own purpose. From the scaled model, there will be a front gate for each unit which could make the house looks small especially it only come with 20ft width. Unless you want more privacy, gateless is definitely a much wiser choice nowadays for G&G development.

The other parcel, Avenham Garden, an interesting layout which comes with a total of 800 units and built-up aroud 17xxsf. My first thought, is it clustered Semi-D? It is not as the unit of 30ft x 60ft has a partial link at the ground floor which provide you an area for living, dining or bedroom as choice (see below). This new idea is to enhance the clustered Semi-D by moving the linked at the back of the house to the side which becomes “linked” Semi-D (Opps, aren’t this becomes link house?). The normal clustered semi-D has the issue of lack of privacy and bad in ventilation. This new layout provide more open space e.g. the linked area for bedroom/dining/living area comes with front and back sliding doors that allows you to open up the space to see through the inner garden. Some of the type also designed with a higher ceiling in this area to create a space for ID to create some wow factor in the house. It provides more sunlight (front, side and back) to the house as the “link” only at the ground floor. This is definitely enhance the concept of small cluster Semi-D that many have offered in the market with width of 30ft. The price sets at rm625k before rebate. The slightly bigger built-up (18xxsf) with the living room “links” at the front has a higher price tag of rm700k before rebate. By zooming into the layout, one can notice that the “linked dinning area” for Type B, C & E  will open up visual space for kitchen and see through for front and back gardens. The mummies who like bigger kitchen will pick the type A & C but drawback is that it is an open kitchen which is hard to close up unlike the other type.

This parcel comes with gateless concept and create spacious feel externally and provide additional area (from existing 23x30ft) for your cars!

The Endlot comes with either additional 5 or 10ft width which costs additional rm60k more compares to intermediate unit. You need to top up rm150k for corner unit with 20ft of land. The distance between the endlots would be around 15ft and good that it is only for walkway and no vehicle is allow to go through it. In this case, endlot could be worthy to think about if you like more window and extra land.

Let talk about the favourite ownstayer’s topic – the back lane of each unit. For both parcels, it comes with a 15ft wide pathway. However, instead of garden theme, developer only provides planter boxes there. So, do not expect anything fancy there!

How to measure the built-up area in Eco Grandeur? Normally, we would have thought that it is the area within the four walls. Apparently it is not for Eco Grandeur, developer is based on the area under the shade. So example, the 12ft length of the carpark which covered by car porch will be considered as part of the built-up area. If one to take out that area from the built-up, your actual built-up would be rather small! But, by looking at some of the layouts, additional built-up can be added in by having the glass awning at the inner garden or other open space at the ground floor. Well, it is all up to the approval and leniency from the JMB.

Facilities?

With the affordable pricing above, you would have expected that no fancy facilities would be given. However, Eco World being Eco World, they won’t strip it “bare” for everything. Within the parcel, a reasonable a 200ft wide and 5 acres garden/park are given as open space for the residents. However, instead of clubhouse, both parcels come with community hall, areas for tadika and surau etc.

Security features? Unfortunately, eventhough the guardhouse would be grand but no “canggih” features provided. It is a basic guardhouse without central monitoring system (CMS) or intercom. Each house comes with own alarm system. Question is, when the alarm is triggered and without the system to monitor, guards need to be super efficient to deal with it, not to say it has 1000 units for Graham Garden and 800 units for Avenham Garden. Perhaps JMB may need  to tap on creative solution and technology to resolve this issue. The fence will be a normal emblem wall fence instead of anti-climb fence which commonly built in G&G development nowadays. A big let down in this offering. If you looking at the bright side, the maintenance fee will be very affordable given its no-frills concept with higher density.

Future Prospect

When Eco World launched Eco Majestic in Semenyih, followers of Tan Sri are expecting the replicate of Setia Alam. How about Eco Grandeur? The location, demographic of surrounding residents, infrastructure (current and future), potential business and job opportunities are different and based on the current available information on the factors above, Eco Grandeur will rank even lower than Eco Majestic.

The key catalyst will be DASH highway which will improve visibility of Eco Grandeur. However, Ijok still needs plenty of integrated and infrastructure projects to bring more “civilisation” to attract ownstayers. Also, Persiaran Mohktar Dahari is not a nice journey you want to go through everyday based on current condition. Having said that, we can never underestimated Eco World’s role as pioneer or leader to build a new township. Eco World is like a magnet to other developers as wherever they go, many others will join. This is no surprise see the latest 470 acres land acquisition nearby (beside Eco World Business Park V) by LBS. Furthermore, MKH, Glomac and IJM are still having large parcel of lands to develop in this part of world. Keep your eye on this part of Selangor, more to come.

Based on the unusual pricing strategy of Eco Grandeur (hardly see Eco World prices its product below market price though built-up is smaller), which apparently lower than absolute market prices of the existing developments nearby, developer understands the difficult condition and affordability concerns from the market. For investors, investment horizon always much longer for any purchase in new township. So, be prepared to hold LONG. How long? Developer like Eco World normally will help you to shorten it. As business park V is already in next year’s pipeline, it should help to boost job opportunities and “living index” in near future. Student rental market from UiTM? You may need to head to head with MKH’s ParkHill where interchange will be built in future. For ownstayer who loves to own a landed property with character, Eco World will hardly disappoint you if you can accept the location and distance for your daily routine, especially given a relatively cheap price tag to own a piece of Eco World’s landed property series. However, ownstayer needs to bear in mind that this will not be a Premium Landed Development like other Eco World’s products though PROPCAFE believe Eco World will still maintain some standard and all hallmark of Eco World’s character  to deliver a relatively nicer living environment than other developers!

Let’s enjoy another beauty from Eco World below – Eco Grandeur:

Happy traveling and hunting properties!