As Title: I wish to buy a property at Bayu Puteri - Tropicana or Palm Spring.

However,
Bayu Puteri - Tropicana is a Service Apartment
Palm Spring is a Condominium.

What is the difference between this two? Is the Comdominium better than Service Apartment?

2 key deff :

1. Service apartments sits on commercial land, while condo sits on residential land.

2. Due to the above, u will have to pay slightly more in terms of water + elect charges, as u r being charged commercial rates.

Thank for explanation!!!

But, only the water and electricity charge higher.
Any hidden cost different with the condo?

Is the Service apartment protect under Housing Development Act?

Techinically under HDA, service apartment is treated as any other commercial/shop lots

where as under condominium, it is protected under HDA


Ps. Go hire a lawyer, it is extremely important to get legal advice from a qualified lawyer

If service apartment not protect under HDA, any fault if may exist compare with HDA?

some serviced apartments have similar electrical charges to residential condos...

for serviced apartments, the quit rent and assessment is higher, also the maintenance fees is higher...

if you buy under construction from developer, serviced apartments charge on commencement of work where as condos charge on completion of work... this is for disbursement for progressive payment...

in event of late delivery, abandon project... service apartments you have to sue the developer yourself where as condos you can report to HDA

This post has been edited by kenji1903: Sep 15 2007, 11:18 PM

Bankers also hate Service apartment. due to grey matter when transfering is concern. Its not protected by the housing act and things still not sort out yet between developer , the master title and the individual title. Messy.

Reply to kenji1903:

The Electricity, Water charge higher is ok, but I worry the Quit Rent and Assessment is too high, anybody know different how much compare with condo?

Reply to hackwire:
Do you know the procedure of transfer? and how can I check whether the transfer success or not?

im not so sure but you need a lawyer to follow up the transfer with the land office for the safe side. sometimes the property that you buy is under caveat.

it depends on location, you might want to check with the developer or better, the municipal council/land office of that area

ok....Thanks for explanation... I will try to solve all this problem...
Thank you for help!!!

KK,

I'm new to property investing as well, recently I'm researching on commercial unit as I intended to buy one. Regarding your question here, AFAIK, commercial unit now is protected by HDA act too, effectively this April.

You can check out a discussion on this change here:
http://www.myrealestate.com.my/viewtopic.php?t=1244

Correct me if i'm wrong.

aeronyc,

As i read the link you provided, they only talk about the payment of completion(all regarding the problem with developers)

How about if I buy 2nd hand service apartment? I did not face this kind of problem! Meaning no problem for 2nd hand buyer? How about the transfer name from the owner to the buyer, is there difficulty to do so?

Quoting from an article in my bookmark sauce theEdge

According to Previndran, quit rent in Kuala Lumpur is calculated at 65 sen psm for residential land and RM4 psm for commercial land. The assessment charges for residential and commercial property, meanwhile, are calculated at 6.0 and 12 per cent of the annual value, respectively.


edit: Another thing you should do is to compare the SPA between a commercial property you're interested in with the SPA for a residential property. Note the difference and query the developer or check with someone knowledgeable.

edit2: Forgot something else check if car park is included with the unit or not!

I've heard some commercial developers dont bundle carpark with the unit. You'll have to pay extra to rent your carpark from them - so clever to make money

This post has been edited by aaronpang: Sep 17 2007, 10:35 AM

Aaron bro, effective 1st April 2007, all SPA for service apartments is now standardize under HDA, and that means we'll be using a standard SPA for both commercial and residential titled properties.

Pai,

but I unable to find any related article on website regarding this issue? Do you have it?

So I've heard but I believe it's meant/applies for new properties launched after that date... I'm not 100% sure about projects launched earlier or if the legislation is backdated?

I might be wrong but it doesn't hurt to double check the SPA...

BTW TS are you buying new from developer or sub-sale unit??

not yet , i think its not been enforce yet.
banks are still not interested to loan out to some serviced apartment . i asked them why, they said its the ruling . i think they know very well.

enforce already fren, just bought a service apartment last month

KK,

Sorry but I'm not the expert, newbie to real estate as well. You may try to ask around in the forum that I provided. many sifu there

Good Luck

Don worry, I will try to find out more information before i buy....Anyway, Thank you for you information and sharing...

Thats good news indeed...

Does the SPA 100% match a typical HDA buyers SPA like DLP, LAD etc, just wondering? Is this a newly launched project?

Any pitfalls? or is everything else the same please share

This post has been edited by aaronpang: Sep 18 2007, 09:47 AM

basically uses the standard HDA, and its not a a newly launched project. Bought it when it was 95% completed, now already 100% completed with CF

Pitfalls, will share if I encounter any. So far so good

how about the increasing price of quit rent and other bills. are they using the residential rate instead of commercial rates. most serviced apt maintenance rate is quite high also.

buy small units n u'll be fine.


The one I bought is a small studio unit

that didn't answer my question, buddy. u r implying that the rate is still under the commercial rate. r u dead sure when the bills come it does not use commercial rate? have you check with the developer?

if your property sit on commercial land, whether its under HDA or not, you are still charged commercial rates (quit rent, assessment)... the developer does not set these rates, the gov does... water and electric charges depend on how the developer negotiates with Tenaga and Syabas... some serviced apartments get residential rate electrical bills...

I didnt bother answering bcoz as per my previous post (2nd post in this thread), I've already stated it would be under commercial rate.

Sound like very difficulty for me to own a property on commerce land. Too many problem need to bear in mind.

no doubt its better to go for residential-land properties, but at the end of the day, it depends on one's investment goal. You can find very good bargains in some service apartments, plus some are excellently located, nearby city center & public transportation. Example :

Bought a service apartment studio in May for 160k. Today, monthly rental is about 1.4k p/m and selling price is about 200k +-. Am sitting on paper profit of 40k(if i decided to sell), and gross rental yield is above 10% p/a.




Now, do i mind paying slightly more for quit rent on service apartments ?
Yes (water + elec are paid by my tenant )

Will I buy another service apartment in the future despite having to pay more?
Hell yeah, if I could find another bargain deal just like above. Bottomline, the benefit far outweights the downside

where is it lah..

not many studio apartments under that price range and newly built...

let me guess... Ritz@Damansara Perdana?

Nope, its in KL city center

on a sidenote, earlier buyers of Ritz are laughing their way to the bank now, with capital gains is currently hovering at circa 40% which means their ROI after 4 years is minimum at 200% or 50% p/a anum. Not bad huh

the first thing that came into my mind was Viva Residence, Jln Ipoh... but its residential... KLCC would be way out of that price... i'll look again

interesting... what about the other condos around, Armanee Terrace, etc?

what about the ones in SS2, Casa, Ken, Ameera, upcoming Casa Suites and Tropics? any views, sifu?

im no sifulah, just learning and sharing here, just like u. And its not Viva, and I wont categorize Viva as city center condo's lah

so u r looking for a condo to buy? so why not u start by letting us know what would be your investment goal 1st? That way we can all make our reccomendations n thoughts

p/s : u can PM me if u wanna know the S.Apartment name. Dont really like the idea of publishing my property adress in a high traffic public forum.

the only answer for Serivce apartment and COndo comparing is below this linkl



COmment here please finish watching. Thanks

Video link is not working.

Agreed.... all serviced apartment is under schcedule H in HDA act... has been enforced fully... buyers will be protected under the law.the only thing in the grey area is all the SOHO,SOFO,SOVO,etc

Does this also means subsale service apartments would be exempted from GST once it kicks in? Only worry customs will review their policy and sapu service residence alltogether for GST.

Exempted.. 100% sure.. wont change one la. no worries abt service apartment. Its those short term flippers of SOVO SOXO SOFO tht shld be the most worried. even if u invested into those its nt gona be easy to sell la.

Thanks for your feedback Sifu!

Im no sifu but what apartment u wanna buy? BBB campers ask ppl to buy before GST to nt get charged GST on lawyer fee, furniture, renovation etc Wthr condo or apartment, u would still hv to pay gst for all dis other things. I would still wait fr a goodbuy rather than rush into buying as its a bit too late to nt gt the GST effect

Im looking at ohako at the moment, still contemplating on it as the location is not the most ideal..but low entry cost which is what attracts me. But the spa signing will be on may only. Still cant escape all the gst for lawyer fee etc rite?

ya.. like i said mmg hard to do soon unless they apply apdl thenonly preview project..expect less of tht in the future cos developer might wanna scale down/chane product after seeing demand