Mutiara Villa is 15 years old. It is ideally located in the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur (Tengkat Tong Shin, close to Jalan Alor).
Unit's details:
- Level 23
- 1041sf
- 2bedroom
- 2bathroom (master bathroom with bath tub)
- Fully furnished
- Fully air-conditioned
- Living area with TV,sofa set,coffee table
- Fully equipped kitchen with built-in kitchen cabinet, refrigerator,cooker hob & hood
- Facilities included 24 hrs security, swimming pool, gymnasium, laundry, mini market, BBQ, covered carpark.
The location is strategic. As people say, the three most important things in property investments are location, location and location. It's within walking distance to many interesting places in Kuala Lumpur.
See below for the map:
As you can see, the apartment(orange icon) is in the middle of KL. KLCC to the north, Bukit Bintang to the south (Berjaya Times Square, Pavillion, Starhill, Lot 10, Sg Wang Plaza, Low Yat Plaza (exactly across the apartment)), Pudu Bus station & Financial centre to the west, and LRT dotted all around it. It is also surrounded by offices, banks, cosmopolitan restaurants, trendy cafes and local street cafe.
Here's what the building looks like:
Here's what it looks inside:
It's located high up, so the view is nice:
If anybody wants to rent this apartment, do contact me. I'm renting it out for RM2,500
The agreement to purchase the apartment today was in the form of paying the earnest deposit (2%) to the Real Estate Agent. The rest of the 10% deposit is payable upon signing the Sales & Purchase (S&P) Agreement. I will apply for loan for the remaining 90%.
The agent told me the whole process will take about three months (The S&P will take a month, while loan processing will take another two months). That means, I will only get my keys in September 2009.
The agent also introduced me to a lawyer who will handle this purchase for me. The lawyer's office is located close by to the apartment at Jalan Sultan Ismail, so I just walked there. Lawyer’s fees are very expensive. Those, plus stamp duty etc amount to about 3-4% of the purchase price.
Later on, I shopped for home loans. I went to HSBC which was also at Jalan Sultan Ismail and talked to the nice officer there. Current poor economic condition is the best time to apply for loans, since government wants to promote expenditures to stimulate the economy, and thus, they lower the loan rates. Actually, I was at crossroads about whether it’s best to use the money I have, to invest in stock market (and Public Mutual unit trusts) to take advantage of the low prices now, or to buy property and take up home loans, to take advantage of the low loan rates. In the end, I chose property. I will continue investing in stock market and unit trusts, but I will roll the money I already have invested or slow down a bit. At HSBC, for the HomeSmart loan, for the 7-years Lock-in Period, they offer BLR-1.85% (for Bank paying costs (legal etc)) for the first year, and BLR-1.75% for subsequent years. Since BLR is 5.55% now, that’s 3.7%! And if I choose to pay costs myself, it’s BLR-2.25% for the first year (3.3%) and BLR-1.95% for subsequent years. I think, for this purchase, I’ll opt for paying myself, since after calculating, I think I can save about 1.5% of purchase cost.
My lawyer also gave my number to other banks like Maybank & CIMB. Maybank’s offering BLR-2.1%. I hope HSBC approves my loan. Even though government & banks want people to take up loans more than ever now, they are also very selective about who they give loan too, to avoid problems like in the USA where lending home loans to people who can’t pay back (subprime) was the start of the entire mess of the current financial crisis. Guess I'll find out whether my loan application is successful in about two months' time
KLCI: 1044
