ADV: What Is Your Dream Home?

If you have a choice, where would you choose to live?

For me, 3 things define my ideals of a dream home.

First, location is everything. My home should be close to where I live, work and play. No point living in a nice place if you gotta spend 1.5 hours commuting to work each day

Second, it should be easy to maintain. In practice, this means living in a condominium. Unless I am a Datuk who can afford 5 gardeners and 2 maids to clean up around my bungalow, I reckon it is generally more practical to have a shared pool of staff to help take care of common facilities like gardens, corridors and concierge.

Third, it should conform to my lifestyle and standards. The design and decor of the place should be reflective to who I am as a person. A lot of people’s houses are over-populated with their father’s collection of Chinese traditional arts and calligraphy. Personally, I’m more of a fan of dwellings that incorporate contemporary motifs and eco technology into their design.

One of the most impressive condominiums in Klang Valley right now is KEN Bangsar, located at the very top of Bangsar Hill. This residential highrise is developed by KEN Holdings, the award-winning developer of such other properties as KEN Damansara 1, KEN Damansara 2, KEN Damansara 3 and KENnySia.com

Oh wait, not the last one.

Here are a few reasons why KEN Bangsar will blow your socks off:

It is the highest residential unit within the Klang Valley, the hilltop location of KEN Bangsar gave it commanding view of the surroundings yet still within close proximity to Bangsar Shopping Centre and Sprint and Damansara highways.

The 15-storey freehold luxury residential highrise consists of 76 apartment units and 4 triple-storey penthouses. Each comes with a built-up area from 2,000 to 2,600sq ft, with the price between RM900 to a cool RM1,300 per square feet!

While the price tag may seem expensive compared to other properties within the vicinity, the difference is in the details.

Personally, I have had bad experiences buying so-called "luxury properties" from developers, only to learn that their so-called definition of "luxury" meant cheap furniture, fittings and gym equipment imported from China.

With KEN Bangsar, the developer – under the guidance of their energetic Executive Director Sam Tan, have taken great pains to ensure "luxury" meant not just standard luxury, but OVER-THE-TOP LUXURY.

For example, the entrance to the building is through a double volume lounge for a sense of space, the fitness equipment are of commercial high-end gym quality and the sanitary wares are top-notch Dornbracht fittings from Germany, some costing over RM8,000 a piece!

Then there’s those gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows with low-E bulletproof laminated glass to reduce heat and exquisite marble flooring laid throughout each residential unit.

It is no surprise then that in 2009, KEN Bangsar won Singapore’s Buiding & Construction Authority’s Green Mark Gold Plus Award. In 2011, they further cemented (pardon the pun) their position in the Malaysian real estate when they won the prestigious FIABCI-Malaysia Property Award – Sustainable Development Category.

Those awards are truly well-deserved, because what made KEN Bangsar stood out from the rest is how they took the lead and incorporated so many eco-friendly designs into the building.

Building wastages are recycled and reused as decoration. Energy-efficient motion-sensing lights adorn the car park and staircases. Finally, there’s a rainwater harvesting tank irrigating the landscape throughout the grounds.

By far, the most innovative feature of KEN Bangsar is how Executive Director Sam Tan designed the double volume lobby to be light and airy without the need for air-conditioning.

Sam created a system that harvests cool condensates from the management office’s air conditioner then routed it to an evaporative 2-storey high waterfall inside the lobby to cool it. Meanwhile, the hot air from the air-conditioning compressors is also harvested to provide hot water for the common toilets.

Heck, they even have a fancy name for it called "CHEEL", something KEN Bangsar are innovative enough to come up with. But can’t deny it’s very smart lah.

Even with such high prices, the units in KEN Bangsar are already 85% sold.

So unless you have deep pockets to snap up the remaining units, you may wanna bug Sam Tan on his Twitter to see if he can work out a
good deal with you.

A good alternative is to look into KEN Rimba’s new township in Shah Alam called LEGIAN as well as their soon-to-be-launched project called JIMBARAN.

Coincidentally, these will be Malaysia’s first ever Green townships. Information available at kenholdings.com.my or facebook.com/KEN.Greenbook

Luxurious, yet high-tech and sophisticated – now that’s a definition of a dream house.

37 Replies to “ADV: What Is Your Dream Home?”

No matter how tempting the house property is, the price tag surely is just reserved for the rich elites to afford it.
Even a person with a salary of a business manager could not afford RM1,000 per sq ft.
So, middle class people will suffer from this. Good luck in applying for a low cost housing because apparently your salary exceed the government “minimum requirement”.

Award winning they may be but I cant speak for the quality for the Ken Damansara condos… My sis & I were looking out for our very 1st condo to buy abt 5 yrs back & we went to look at the Ken Damansara Condos. And suffice to say, the quality was not impressive. They had a wall that separated the hall and the doorway to the rooms. When we knocked on the wall to test its sturdiness, it was HOLLOW sounding… 0_o We didnt buy a prop there in the end…

this kind of property not for ordinary rakyat marhain like us ….. must work hard n smart.. and save alot of money to be able to afford this kind of luxury home…
i dont understand why middle class are complaining about not being able to afford a “luxury home”
which part of luxury they dont understand?
oh yea i get it thats why so many middle class indulging luxury phones,luxury brands,luxury this that bla2
no wonder lah stuck in middle class keep living in ur fantasy land ..

did they really think kennysia.com readers would be able to afford this luxury home? Someone didn’t do their research properly …

u think so?
do u know that tony fenrndes (one of the richest man in malaysia) read this blog
kennysia has wide range of readers, imo u are the one who should do more research or at least read the blog more

Located in Kerinchi. Dodgy place.

@sohigh – so is datuk tony planning on buying this house? so can YOU afford this place? He has a wide readership huh? Wait how many readers does he even still have? Zilch.
I’ve read his blog long enough to guess those that can afford this place won’t have that much free time to visit this dead blog turned into advertising hub. Suck it.

@ben – i could not agree more on your last sentence. its a dead blog, face it.

Oh so is Kenny gonna buy one? I hope there won’t be some Australian company come setup some metal factory in the backyard of his new house…

Its better call it “KENNYSIA Bangsar”…..

What a waste of A&P fund.

i love kennysia.com!!

fail property developer.
what makes them think green is not gold and there is a need to turn them?

duh i was just making an example, i didt say tony would buy it did i? dont put words into others mouth lah
and just because i cant afford it doesnt mean other people cant
what kind of mentality is this , just because u cant afford u assume other people cant afford them aswell
by the way speaking of tony , i saw alot of caterham look alike cars on transport trucks today , wonder if they are selling in malaysia soon

hey checkout ‘sohigh’s blog. I never thought guys could have such narrow shoulders like those, goose-bumps indeed :O

i am a commoner. not top 10 or even 50 percent of the ‘top earner in the country’. not to say to buy a ‘lux condo’ but to get a roof over my head is burning a massive hole in my pocket. it’s about bread and butter issues.