Bangsar South by UOA
by JP
2 Dec 2007

Introduction
Thinking of Bangsar is very quiet without new development in recent years? There you go another talk of the town - Bangsar South by UOA group. Traditionally, when we talk about Bangsar, it is always refers to the center of Bangsar where pubs, restaurants, shopping complex, condos, offices that projected with the image of expatriate's heaven with luxurious status. Recent years, the rise of KLCC, Mid Valley City, Damansara Golden Triangle (One Utama, The Curve, Ikano Power Center), Mon't Kiara, Bintang Walk (Pavilion, Starhill) are all becoming players in this field that to certain extend has it own identify. Now, we have Bangsar South - Inspired by your dreams. (From UOA).

With growing potential of Malaysia property market, Bangsar South is going to be another huge 60-arce mix development project that targeted to the medium to high-end city living market. It comprises of The Village with property gallery and F&B outlets, The Horizon with Boutique offices, The vertical blocks of commercial offices, The Sphere as Shopping Complex and The Park Residence for High-End Condominiums.

Location
The massive township is located beside Federal Highway and opposite Menara TM to be precise. It is near to Mid-Valley City and beside Pantai Hillpark. If Mid-Valley city does well, in term of location for Bangsar South will have no issue as the criteria for your decision to invest. It is also accessible to University Station for LRT / Kommuter transport. It is very strategic indeed. No further question.

Developer
UOA is an experienced developer for many years. If you are in KLCC area, you can easily view its UOA Centre near KL Convention Center. They have developed projects like Desa Bangsar Ria Condo, Villa Mon't Kiara and on-going projects like Plaza Menjalara at Kepong, Menara UOA Bangsar near Dataran Maybank and even niche product like VI 6 Limited Edition bungalows.

They have been low profile and getting active recent years together with its REITs arm listed on Bursa Malaysia. In term of financial stability, both its group and REITs will be ready for this massive project and I personally believe they are stable developer for your investment.

Special
Bangsar South is a big project, it is also well associated with Bangsar that always able to fetch a premium value due to its location. Thus, the advantages are location and project is huge that will create a community by itself. I will estimate the price per sf of this project of commercial and residential properties can easily start around 500-600 per sf. Depending on the ideas of the independent features and facilities of its different sub-project in this area and we expect the price will escalate further if the project is fully committed. Typical capital appreciation should be around 15-20% per year alongside the project implementation stage and a yield of 8% should be easily achieved with our estimated price.

Against
Major traffic problem can be an issue if we use Mid-Valley City as reference. The larger the project, traffic will become a challenge especially in this highly populated area. Till now we have not seen an overall picture until the entire township access connectivity becomes solid.

Lastly, identity is one of the most important thing to my personal perspective is required. It is not something really bad as because of its location and the degree of the project is huge, thus the value of the property potential is very immense. If there is an added unique identify or theme can be further added, I believe it should sky high for it values in the coming years.

Conclusion
Well, looks like this is another good investment opportunity in the city. Overall, I suggest financially if you are affordable to invest, it will give you a good return together with great yield. Some of my colleagues told me that they are worried about the occupancy rate due to the supply of so many offices and retails areas to the market. Personally, that will not be a concern to me if the urbanization process is to continue and the government policies to attract foreign investors are becoming more liberal couple with a stable growth of economy. It is a highly rated project from my point of view.