Tropicana Gardens – Bayberry ~ What gives ?
The hottest launch this weekend is no doubt, Dijaya Corporations’s Tropicana Gardens Phase 2, aka Bayberry.
Located along the perpetually jammed Persiaran Surian in Kota Damansara, you will either love it, or hate it. Love it, because it is located along the Golden Mile, where you can find everything from banks (CIMB, Public Bank, Stanchart, UOB, HSBC, Maybank, Hong Leong, etc) to groceries (Village Grocer), to hotels (Tune Hotels), coffee shops, restaurants, etc Hate it ? Obviously you’ve not driven along Persiaran Surian during peak hours, traveling from Sunway Giza to Pelangi Sentral can sometimes take more than 30 minutes along that 1.5km stretch.
Phase 1 was called Arnica, and was launched in October 2012 – pricing from RM700psf upwards was considered ‘expensive’ at that time.
As usual, back then – the studios were the first to go, all sapped within a blink of an eye by investors, some taking multiple units even (hence the limit of 2 units per purchaser during Bayberry’s launch).
But Dijaya rightly (or wrongly if you are the aggrieved DPC member), kept some units for Saturday when it was open to the mass public during Arnica’s launch.
So what about this time around ?
As you can see, Dijaya has nicely set up seats to cater for the morning’s balloting process (or number taking process) ; as well as every Malaysian’s favorite – free food.
Price is a whopping RM1000psf upwards, when I was there around 1pm – there were 2 units of 983sf left. One of which was going at RM1.1mio before discount. That’s RM1,120 psf!
Some pictures from the launch. As the cliché goes, a picture tells a thousand words, all the units were snapped up. This round the buyers were told to write a cheque payable to a lawyer after they sign the Option to Purchase form. Previously, the buyers had the option of swiping their cards immediately on the spot , i.e. literally outflow of money on day 1.
As mentioned, layout are identical. Smaller studio units face east/west, and I am sure the west facing units were the fisrt to go, as they face the internal facilities and pool as well. The larger 983sf face north (i.e. faces the elevated LRT tracks). And south facing are the 2 crème de la crème large sized units (of the 3-bedder 1,274sf and 3+1 bedder with 1,573sf).
I can see the investors going for the smaller unit, with smallest absolute value, whilst the larger units will be taken either by families for own stay, or by the orang kaya Tropicana for their weekend home..
Whilst previously the Arnica tower was up to 38 floors, Bayberry is taller with 43 floors.
Unit orientation, size, and layout are all the same as Arnica’s.
At RM1000psf upwards, I honestly don’t know how to read this. I should have interviewed some of the buyers to find out what’s in their mind. But I can sense quite a few were buying for the next generation.
For a studio unit, roughly RM600k, and with a 30-year loan, you are looking at minimum of RM3,000 to break even , after loan repayment and maintenance.
For a studio, in Kota Damansara to rent out at RM3,000 ? Hmmm, despite the MRT access – one could rent similar units within the KLCC vicinity. If you don’t need the MRT access, then there’s always this nearby Tropicana Avenue with a less stressful environment. The investors/owners of Sunway’s Nexis, Encorp’s Strand Residence, and Mitraland’s Cascades, must be smiling and rubbing their hands with glee on hearing this latest pricing news. Bear in mind, neighbouring Casa Indah is only asking roughly RM600psf Work has already started on the project, and Phase 1 buyers have already signed the S&P end of last year.
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- a rare integrated commercial, MRT, residential development – cannot think of any other projects with the exception of KL Sentral and KL Eco City
- the latest ‘wong’ area in PJ, reminds me of the SS2 square as well as the DU Uptown area.
- More legs to run with subsequent Phase 3 and Phase 4 launches
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- pricing is prohibitive, excessive – hard to make sense of it
- price point is a benchmark in the PJ vicinity, reminds one of KLCC pricing or Mah Sing’s Icon-ic pricings