Accommodation

Residential Property

Residential property covers a whole area of property types including condominiums, residential houses, service apartments, apartments, townhouses and luxury homes. Let us examine the various types of residential properties available in Malaysia.

The residential property types are as follows:

Residential houses
Most people, especially families prefer residential houses than other types of homes. Residential houses include terrace houses, semi-detached houses and single family detached houses. They come in one- , two- or three-storeys. Usually residential houses are two-storeys and the upper third storey is the attic, or if it is the lower third storey, it is a basement. Residential houses in Malaysia are landed properties usually with land and linked to other houses but separated by walls or fences. These types of houses are always on the market for rent or sale.

Luxury Homes
What defines a luxury home is usually its hefty price tag. It usually offers the highest quality, location, floor plan, amenities and lifestyle to owners within the community. Size does matter sometimes but it does not define a luxury home. Estates, mansions, castles, villas, and seaside homes are the obvious luxury style homes, but some that feature: an interior lap pool, art gallery, gym, media room, relaxation room would be categorized as well, despite the size. Luxury homes are usually the upper-tier of the market and are priced from RM1 million onwards.

Apartments and Condominiums
An apartment is a high-rise or low-rise building with basic facilities while a condominium consists of more facilities such as swimming pool, convenience store, tennis courts, gym, and other amenities. Apartments are relatively self-contained housing unit in a building which is often rented out to a family or one or more people for their exclusive use. It is sometimes called a flat. Some locales have legal definitions of what constitutes an apartment. In some places ‘apartment’ denotes a building that was built of such units, while ‘flat’ denotes a unit in a building built originally as a single-family house and later subdivided. One of the types of apartments available is studio apartment. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller separate room. Condominiums fetch higher prices and rentals usually due to the fact that they are of better quality and come with a full range of facilities.

Townhouses
Generally townhouses are not as popular as other types of houses in Malaysia. Townhouses are two properties built on the same piece of land, normally the lower unit occupies the ground and part of the first floor, while the top unit occupies the remainder of the first floor and the remainder second floor. Most of the time the owner of the lower unit is different from the owner of the top unit. Townhouses are different from condominiums or apartments. In other countries, townhouses are also known as row houses. Some townhouses have amenities in the community such as playgrounds and tennis courts. The characteristics of a townhouse include a small frontage onto a street or thoroughfare and a yard of some kind behind.

Service Apartments
A service apartment is very similar to hotels but the only thing is you can own or rent a service apartment. It is furnished and provides facilities for daily use. It is also designed for short term stays and is cheaper than hotel rooms. Since the beginning of the boom in cheap international travel, there has been a rise in the interest in service apartment instead of hotel for short stays. Service apartments are basically like condominiums with services included. They are usually located in commercial districts. It is said that they are not regarded as residential properties hence they are not covered by the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1996.

Commercial Property
Commercial property covers a whole area of property types including shop offices, shop houses, commercial buildings, retail stores, professional buildings and shopping centres. Commercial property is pricier than residential property and it has a possibility to face problems in rental during recession. Let us examine the various types of commercial properties available in Malaysia.

The commercial property types are as follows:

Shop offices
A shop office is basically self-explanatory. It is a row of buildings in which separate shop offices are linked together. It is different from office buildings or shop houses. However it is the same design as the shop house. The only difference is a shop house is not used fully while a shop office is used fully for commercial use. In the early twentieth century, this style of building was common in the cities closer to commercial districts and is often used for larger businesses where large companies needed a large amount of space.

Shop houses
They are generally low rise buildings with one or two storeys. On the ground floor there are shops which open up to a five foot way and upstairs it is residential accommodation.Shop houses generally have the same design as shop offices, a row of buildings which are linked together. Usually the shop is a coffeeshop, barber, auto workshop or school association. Residential accommodation is meant to accommodate one or more families or used as a dormitory for workers. Shop houses are usually used for family businesses where the shop is used for businesses and the upper floors for residential purposes. The position of the shop and residential space depends on the number of floors of the shop house: A single storey shop house tends to include residential space behind the shop, while residential spaces in shop houses of two or more storeys are typically located above the shop.

Commercial Buildings
Basically a commercial building is a type of building that is solely for commercial use. It can be used for offices, warehouses or retail outlets. In some places, commercial buildings combine functions such as an office on levels 2-10 with retail on level 1.

Retail stores
A retail store is basically a store that is selling goods or provides services such as a book store, a boutique, a barber and so on. They can be found in shopping malls or shop offices, shop houses, commercial buildings or standalone store. Standalone stores are quite rare unless it is a large company. Retail stores are found in central business districts and urban areas.

Shopping centres
Shopping malls or shopping centres are large buildings with a variety of shops in them. The shops are easily accessible and in the shopping centres there are escalators and elevators to ease shopping. Most malls sell almost anything from clothes, food, household accessories, hardware, computer goods, sports equipment and entertainment like cinemas, skating rinks, bowling alleys, pool tables, etc. Shopping malls also have a food court and an anchor departmental store.

Vacant Land
There are three main types of land in Malaysia: freehold land, leasehold land and Malay Reserve land. The status of lands that are to be purchased must be checked in order to make an informed investment decision. Land status can be checked at the Land Office or the State Land Registrar.
Here are the types of land in Malaysia:

Freehold land
The tenure of freehold land is for life. The owner of the land owns the land, the building and anything that is on the land. There is no time limit for the owner and the freehold land lies with the title holder until he transfers it to someone else.

Leasehold land
Leasehold land is held by a person by virtue of a lease agreement between him and the owner permitting him to hold the land for a period as said in the lease agreement. The difference between leasehold and freehold is that for leasehold, the land is to be returnable after the expiry of the period. This type of land also belongs to the government and the least is usually for 99 years. When the lease expires, the government can take back the land or lease it further. The lesser the number of years left on the lease, the less valuable the land becomes.

Malay Reserve Land
Basically Malay Reserve Land is land that cannot be sold to other races, even foreigners except for Malays or Bumiputras. It is land exclusively meant for Malays and Bumiputras.

(Courtesy from I-Property Malaysia)