Do you know that property prices of homes in KL and Penang are crazy high compare to other states in Malaysia? It has been a challenging year in 2011 when we started shopping for a home, a landed property.  In 2011 property market was so bullish that finding a home for us was no easy task. Every month there are new launches, be it in Subang, KL, Kuchai area, Damansara, Sungai Buloh, Kota Damansara, Sri Damansara you name it.

Just in Kuchai area there must be 3-4 launches last year alone. New Property launches in KL  are mostly of highrise residential. There is hardly anymore land for them to be selling terrace houses and neither would they wanted to- as highrise building reaked the most profit for a smaller piece of land for them ( I presume ). The way I sees it, Developers are selling more Studio/ SOHO units, or mixed development of commercial and residential which I hated the most.

There are some Developers selling luxury highend condo / residence with  a floorplan of 1,400sq ft or bigger with MYR800,ooo – 1 Million price tag. I for sure cannot afford anything with a 7 digit price tag, if you are one of them lucky you, for earning high salary!!!  Too bad I am not, nor will I be spending my 7 digit $$ on  condo with Strata Title, leasehold or freehold.

Looking at the hefty price tag we resorted to shopping for landed property homes only, that is what we always wanted anyway hehe. It must be a freehold also. We wanted Landed property because:

1. The land with title belongs to us when we paid off the bank.
2. We dont have to pay monthly maintenance to the condo management which saves us MYR300-500 a month
3. We have our own parking!
4. Cheap Cukai
5. Cheaper water bill and electricity
6. Space of a double storey, more privacy

We started looking for homes in Subang area as it will be nearer to my mum’s place and most of the residential has either fully or partially guarded. We went for house hunting almost every weekend going back and forth from PJ to Subang and I am amazed at how determine I am when I wanted a house so badly. I searched in iproperty.com  and mudah.com daily, check the newspaper for good deals. We started looking for homes with the price of MYR400K initially.

Seriously! You can’t get a decent home with MYR400K budget. Its of smaller size of 20 X 60, in areas like USJ 1, 2, 3, 4.  We increase our budget of finding houses within MYR500-550K an MYR 100K increase. Damn it!! Then we almost bought a house 20X 100 with another 8 feet of land on the backyard in SS19 but eventually after taking into consideration of future sale of the property, market value and the main downpart was that the house is very near to the sewerage plant, we drop the idea of getting into the deal. Also Thanks to Jynn, Jynn’s mum and my mummy’s strong protest and much deliberation, we did not regret the decision after all.

The house hunting continues and we went as far as Kota Kemuning to look for our dream home. We only went to see houses in Indah Residences 2, which is really nice about 2,200sq ft full build up and nicely done, fully guarded and very modern design. We can’t bring ourself to buy the house eventhough it is truly beautiful because of its location. Looking into the location of the new township we need to travel daily about 30 KMs per way to our workplace, the number of tolls we need to pass and the hours stuck in the traffic not forgetting the dangerous route whereby many commercial vehicle using the same road to the Port Klang, I was taken aback. Yes, the house is very nice, but the inconvenience and the danger on the road I never wanted to trade for that kind of situation everyday. Besides its very inconvenient for my parents to come visit and its super inconvenient for me to go Shopping. I love Shopping, I’ll be deprived of going to malls as often as I wanted to go. Its so freaking far!! Bye Bye Kota Kemuning. Maybe I’ll buy one of these houses when the infrastructure/ accessibility as improved, given I can still afford it.

Back to houses in Subang area, we look at houses USJ11, USJ 13, USJ 17, USJ 18, USJ 5. We like the houses in USJ 17 or 18 the most as the neighbourhood is more pleasing to the eyes and the layout is better. SS17 neighbourhood offers a more serene environment but it is not guarded, so sad. Anyway its hard to get a decent house even with a budget of less than MYR600K. Thats depressing. Some good deals are very quick snatch up by many other buyers, its also very frustrating. The minute you call them, the agents says its available, by the time we went to see its sold. Come on!! These buyers doesn’t need to think? Get bank loans? Do they print money? Properties Agent told me they dont have enough houses to sell in Subang Jaya. WTF!!

Then in November 2011, we started talking deals with a Malay agent, almost sealed the deal of getting a house in USJ 11, partially guarded 22X70 if I remember correctly. We asked for a CF for the house extension but the owner was not able to provide it, further negotiation of more discount failed and the deal is off and we flew to New Zealand.

When we came back after the long holiday I started to look for house again and its almost like fated. I seldom look for houses in this PJ area as some are very very old, leasehold land and some townships, they dont even have a house for sale. Then one fine day, I saw an ads in TheStar newspaper and I quickly called up the agent for viewing during weekends. We saw the house on Saturday and went to see several house more in Subang and we got into deal on Sunday itself. Come On!! We dont print money!! & We put the deposit for the house just like that. 2% of the house selling price!

I couldn’t believe it!!

The moment we handled the cheque to the agent, the minute I signed the Letter of Offer my heart pounds so hard and fast that I almost wanted to faint.

I couldn’t believe!! (OCD, repeatedly said)

Reality kicks in!!

We got a landed property!

We paid higher for the POSTCODE!

& the most exciting part was WE ARE HEAVILY IN DEBT NOW.

WTF!! duduk biasa saja, apa main beli property?