PROPCAFE Review: Tropicana Miyu @ Petaling Jaya Section 17

PROPCAFE has been delaying to publish this review due to resources, MCOs, lack of information and unconfirmed information on this project. Anyway, PROPCAFE has decided not to wait anymore and here is the short review for all our followers. Not as detail as PROPCAFE’s usual standard but hopefully the content is good enough for those who are interested on this project.

TROPICANA MIYU

Tropicana MIYU is developing by Tropicana Corporation, a reputable developer which specialised mostly on mid to high-end property development in Malaysia. Tropicana Corp is season developer and the risk of completion is relatively low. PROPCAFE highlighted it because choosing the right developer is crucial to avoid high abandon risk in current “crisis” period. Quick search in google will help you to know more about this developer. 

The name of a property is important as it is the name for many residents to call HOME. Yup, “I am staying at “MIYU”!”. Why MIYU? The Developer is thinking about ME & YOU! Sound a bit selfish :P. How about others? 🙂 In Mandarin, it sound like MEI YOU (没有 = Tak Ada). Joke aside, it is at least an unique name that can be easily remembered. MIYU in Japanese also can be interpreted as “Beauty, Dream.” So, name wise, not too bad. 

Density

This project is sitting at a 2.28 acres land, with a total of 271 units. It translates to a density ratio of 119 units per acre. Although many claim that this is low density project, PROPCAFE disagreed because you simply cannot use gross units to conclude the density of the development (how about 150 units in 0.5 acres?). The land is very small and the units are offered with the layout of 2 bedrooms and above. To call it mid density is probably more appropriate. Anyway, living with less units like 200+ units within a project is getting rare nowadays and you still have much less traffic compares to larger lands with similar or slightly lower units offering. It is still a bless to owners. Decent density ratio, but not low. 

The good news is, with only 37 storeys (7 storeys are carpark podium) and eight units to share a floor, there are still 3 & 1 lifts to share among 271 units which come in a reasonable lift sharing ratio, therefore, waiting time for lift is not an issue.

Freehold and Orientation

It is hard to get freehold property in prime Petaling Jaya land nowadays. MIYU, is clearly having great advantage of this compare to nearby leasehold properties. To add on, it is a fully residential property without any commercial units within the property, yup no 7/11, no laundry shop, no shops. But it also no such convenient within the building :). So, it really depends on how you see it. The units’ orientation of either South and North Facing made it easier for buyers to choose the units as all of them could avoid “West Sun”, except a wall from the corner unit. In term of the architectural design, well done, MIYU.

Facade

The design is mainly based on the featuring of “timber and gold cladding” elements which you can observed it from its guardhouse design then it flows to the podium, common and facilities areas. The external look of facade is very typical Tropicana’s property, simple and squarish look, but no surprise. Sometimes, ever green design could be safer, so not much to complain here :).

Facilities and Maintenance Fee

MIYU comes with pretty standard facilities at ground level and podium level 7 (see the list below). You will get water features, grand lobby, 40 meter long infinity pool, floating gymnasium, cabana, leisure lounge etc.

Bear in mind that MIYU only has 271 units and it will be a disaster to maintain “overstretched” facilities. And surely, owners do not want to see the maintenance fee to be increased from the existing pre-fixed RM0.33 psf fees. PROPCAFE thinks developer is providing a good balance of facilities to owners based on the future maintenance and number of owners. So focus should be more on the quality of these facilities instead of count of facilities.

Well, from previous project with similar pricing, Tropicana always very reasonable and not stingy to spend on common areas/lounge and its landscape. So, it should deliver it with its own class. More is Less, Less is More. Buyers should be happy to have this “sufficient enough” allocation of facilities by developer. If we really need to nitpick, with the price tag touch on million bucks, PROPCAFE like to have a rooftop garden to fully enjoy the view of surrounding and fully embrace the high-rise living. However, it should not be treated as negative point to this project.

Every unit come with at least two carpark bays, however it may take a while for those to drive up to level 6 :). No choice, the building is on a small land, so this is unavoidable. You just need to pray to get a lower floor allocation. 

Floor Plan 

Each floor will be shared by 8 units with the smallest unit stuck in the middle of the floor and larger units will be located at both end of the corridor. This floor plan allows corner units to enjoy its privacy and ventilation since only one wall shared with another unit and it has the 26ft width “air-well” in between the units.

Please take note a wall from the smallest units will be attached with the lift, especially unit 2 and 3 with the main 3 residential lifts. One of the walls at Unit 1 and 8 may still expose to west sun. If given choice, you may avoid this as it is the wall in its master bedroom.

Layout And Pricing

Type A – 851sf

Since it is a two bedrooms design, this should then be considered as family size (unwillingly) under the standard of city centr or prime PJ area. This type of layout provides two proper bedrooms (can fit even King size bed), standard living and dining area, and a small yard. The open kitchen is a bit too small though. One need to build peninsula in the dry kitchen to allow more space storage and working areas to compensate the existing tiny kitchen layout. Well, unlike many developers, MIYU has a separate aircond ledge area from its balcony, so owners can enjoy a proper balcony without the eyesore of having the aircon compressor right above or besides the sliding door. 

Pricing ~ RM700k up 

Type B – 1030sf

PROPCAFE likes this layout a lot as it has three bedrooms which is also more affordable than type C and D without to hit a million or above. To have a proper family living environment, three bedrooms are necessary and should be sufficient in most of the scenarios (live-in parent, baby, future planing etc). The architect has utilised the space well and setting it up as horizontal layout design to increase the dimension (width) and create much spacious feeling when the living and dining area sit side by side with each other. Two bathroom, large L shape kitchen, and a yard are good enough to make it a very functional and practical 3 bedrooms unit. 

Pricing ~ RM850k up

Type C – 1410sf

If you need extra space or are having a maid, this unit give you an extra utility room and additional two toilets. The rest are just similar as the type B which come with a good  horizontal layout as mentioned above.

Pricing ~ RM1.1mil up

Type D – 1520sf

This is the largest unit type in MIYU. Basically, it is a dual key design layout which allows owner to split a room for studio living purpose. PROPCAFE never believe of using it as two generation living i.e. keep  privacy for either young or elderly. Come on, as a family, please. So, it is more for those who want to increase the rental yield or for owner to rent out the studio separately. Good thing is, the developer is thoughtful enough to provide a small pantry and washer area in the studio unit. We have seen developers left it for owners to take care of the piping for pantry and washer which would be a big headache for investors, not to say cause the leaking in future. Kudos to Tropicana.

Pricing ~ RM1.2mil up

Overall, this project is priced (nett) at slightly above market price at around RM800-900psf.  You can still get the large units below RM800psf though. The subsales pricing of decent properties nearby like Ameera and 5 Stones are around asking around RM650-750psf. Well, in fact you can still get many properties with cheaper price tag in section 13. However, PROPCAFE sees this as the different segment based on its density, developer brand name, and location.  You can see our PROPCAFE Review on Petaling Jaya Section 13 here.

Show units – 3D furnished Unit vs. Unfurnished Unit

You don’t have to go showroom! Tropicana has combined the 3D furnished and unfurnished unit in their 360 degree virtual showroom and shared in their website. Absolutely brilliant! It gives a sense of easy viewing of the unit in most accurate manner. Please visit the developer’s Miyu website to enjoy it.

Now we move to the most important parts of this development.

Location and Accessibility

The key selling point of this project has to be the location. This is the prime Petaling Jaya address which neighbouring with Damansara, TTDI, Bangsar, Bukit Kiara, and PJ section 17 (14 ….), SS2, Bandar Utama, Damansara Jaya etc. It is right in between Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and surrounded by all established and matured townships with full amenities (Private hospitals/ medical centers, art centres, sports faciltiies, parks etc). Just count the malls nearby, you will have 3 Damansara, Starling Mall, Glo Dsara (ops can ignore this :)), Atria Mall, Bangsar Shopping Center, One Utama etc and the countless eateries. Basically, this area of PJ has everything you need. 

However, buyer needs to know this good location is actually right besides the Sprint Highway.  Of course, it gives you great accessibility to Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. But you also need to bear with the noise of this busy highway. Ask or visit your mates who are living beside the highway to understand and get the taste of such noise pollution before making your decision. However, many times we were told it is acceptable, so it is very individual. Nevertheless, buyer should ask developer about the quality of sliding door that can mitigate this issue. Convenient & Accessibility vs. Noise. Choice is yours. If not, to get the least impact, choose the direction towards the section 17. This can avoid the cemetery view toward sprint highway direction as well.

PROPCAFE would like to highlight that while Jalan Harapan is new, clean and wide, buyers need to aware about the “bengkel” and rundown shops at the end of the development which near to the sprint highway exit (see below). Hopefully developer will do some road upgrades and beautification works to make it more pleasant. This site could be the bottleneck jam area as well during the peak hours if Jalan Harapan to be utilised by more road users in near future.

Let’s focus on MRT here which many would like to have it near to their place. Yes, you have it here. The nearest station will be TTDI station which is 1.3km away and take 17 minutes to walk there (see below), though the brochure of developer shows 750m away with dedictated bridge to cross the sprint highway. We are not sure Malaysian used to take 1.3km uncovered walk, especially to cross two main roads, one at the Sprint highway and another near to TTDI station there. Okay at least, you have an option here and I doubt buyers who are paying RM1mil bucks of MiYU will use it often. 

The down side of this project is that the residents have EVERYTHING nearby but NOTHING within walking distance. Even to go the Hub, you need at least 500-600m walk. It means you need to drive out all the time. Well, I guess it is not a big deal to majority of Malaysian. The only and truly walkable township in entire Malaysia is probably just Desa Parkcity.

Risk Factors

This last section, PROPCAFE would like to bring out two risk factors of this property. First, the Rumah Selangorku units are allocated at floor 8 to 11 according to the developer signboard hoarded at the site. Based on the available 226 units for sale, PROPCAFE would assume 45 units of Rumah Selangorku to be available here. The implication is huge to mix the units worth 800psf with the RSKU gross price of RM250k (max ceiling price for Rumah Selangorku units). The sharing of facilities, maintenance fees, and huge disparity of resident demographic may cause issues among the residents. Nothing to discriminate here, but we need to be realistic enough that it is hard earn money from buyers who are looking for specific living lifestyle when they pay such huge amount to call its a home. The developer is fully understanding this and many were told that they are in the process to convert it to normal units which has fixed the price at RM580k. PROPCAFE has to make it clear that until today, we couldn’t confirm anything about the conversion. So, we will leave it to owners to do their due diligence and check with developer. We have to say it is nothing new for developer to convert it with other forms of compensation or fulfilling this requirements in other developments. PROPCAFE feels that the developer can do better on this i.e. only launch it after the conversion is approved to avoid creating anxiety for many buyers who could have sleepless nights on this matter.

The second and last risk factor here is the PJD link or KIDEX highway which was previously planned to build near to the site of MIYU. Although the plan was shelved early, the proposal was put up again early this year (see below links). Jalan Harapan is wide and spacious, so there is no issue to build a highway there there to link up with other part of PJ and Kuala Lumpur. After MRT line 1, 2, 3, do we really need so many highways? The last thing we want to see is to have a highway right in front of the properties. Damansara Perdana folks know the best.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/revival-mega-pj-highway-plan-cards

http://pjdlink.com.my/draft/

Final Say

In short, it is very rare to see a fully residential and freehold property in prime Petaling Jaya location. Although it is sit at a small land, the number of units and pricing are reasonable compares to other properties within the vicinity.

To date, this project is very “laku” and left with limited units. This show PJ lang supports are still there especially good location. While location is key for property buying decision, other areas highlighted above also cannot be neglected. PROPCAFE do not have crystal ball but we believe ownstayers who hunt for new property would still take MIYU as one of their choices in next couple of years. Those who are risk averse can wait for few more years when all the risk factors above becomes much clearer, of course there is always price to pay if you want to wait. I wish you very best to find your dream home and stay safe!