New World Gardens at Plentong, Johor Bahru
Suria Stonor Condominium at KLCC
development is actually a joint venture between a local developer and the New World Group, one of the largest developers from Hong Kong. “The level of service is very different because we have the buggy service which will transport the home owners to and fro from the comfort of their own home to the club house. There will also be a concierge service which will take care of the ticketing, accommodation and transport of the home owners’ friends to and fro from the international airport nearby,” highlighted Alaric. One would normally expect to see certain facilities in a particular strata development, for example, a gated and guarded neighbourhood with installed CCTV cameras on each security outpost, or a leisure facility such as a clubhouse. The process of setting up the management of a property occurs when the developer engages the services provided by Benz & Carlton at the initial period prior and post Vacant Possession (VP) whereby they’re able to setup the management office, assist in the VP process as well as conduct the Annual General Meeting for the formation of the Joint Management Body (JMB) or Management Corporation (MC). The firm also assumes management from pre-existing JMB to operate the estate. According to the new Strata
Management Act 2013 which came into force on 1st June 2015, the JMB needs to be formed within one year after the property’s VP. Thereafter, in order to continue running the estates or buildings smoothly, there is a set of strategic agendas that need to be followed. If one looks at Country Heights in Kajang as comparison. You would come to the realisation that Country Heights is an individual strata. This will be where an investor will buy a plot of land and erect any type of housing architecture that they want such as a pyramid. When you move to a landed strata property, the developer will come out with a uniform design, pattern, and facade. The concept of strata is basically more on bringing the community together for a common cause, which in this case owners are more involved in the management of the estate. According to Alaric, the perk of having a JMB is that residents have a stronger say at what being done at the community level; and that’s the main difference from other non-strata properties. For instance, if there is a significant security issues faced by your neighbourhood and it is not a strata community, it would be tougher getting
all residents to commit to an action plan to combat the said issue as everyone is an individual owner and there is no mandatory requirement for them to get involved. Whereas in strata properties, every owner plays a part in the management of the estate thus allowing better control over the maintenance and management of the property. “Strata literally means title in the air, so if you live in a condo – that’s where the concept of strata first started – it means that as an owner, you may renovate your own unit as you please as long as it doesn’t affect the façade since it is shared by the rest of the owners in the entire building,” said Alaric. The same concept applies to landed strata, whereby the exterior is regulated by the JMB. One who frequents locations such as Sierra Mas, Desa Parkcity or Setia Eco Park will notice that these properties look alike because at the end of the day, the two main reasons as to why the buyers purchased these strata properties are for uniformity and security. CHALLENGES OF ESTATE MANAGEMENT “Personally, I’ve never heard of any estate and building management firm who claim to receive 100% maintenance fee on time,” said Alaric. www.propertyinsight.com.my OCTOBER 2015 I 31