BUKIT Rahman Putra, a township in Sungai Buloh, north of Klang Valley, was established in 1991. The earliest developers were Land & General Sdn Bhd, Sunway Bhd and GuocoLand (M) Bhd.
GuocoLand developed Notting Hill, the most exclusive and enviable housing estate in the area. Located next to the Bukit Rahman Golf and Country Club, the project offered only 52 units which were completed in 2006 and priced from RM1 million each.
The current market price for a Notting Hill house is around RM2.6 million (about RM570 per square feet). The highest median price ever recorded was RM716 psf in early 2016, while the lowest was RM446 psf in the last quarter of 2013.
Sunway Group launched Sunway Rahman Putra, a gated-and-guarded neighbourhood in early 2003.
The project was completed in 2006, featuring two-storey superlink courtyard houses and two storey bungalows spread over 8.5ha of freehold land.
It sold well as it overlooked the 36-hole golf course of Rahman Putra Golf and Country Club.
Prices for the two-storey superlink courtyard houses started from RM657,000. The bungalows, with 41 units altogether, were sold forRM1.3million to RM1.9 million each.
Based on quick facts from brickz.my, two superlink houses in Sunway Rahman Putra were transacted at RM1.13 million and RM1.46 million while two bungalows were sold forRM2.23million and RM2.7 million (between November 2016 and September last year).
FROM UNAPPEALING TO ATTRACTIVE
Back then, Bukit Rahman Putra was an unpopular housing area as there were road connectivity issues and was thought to be too far from Kuala Lumpur city centre. There was also nothing much for residents to do in terms of shopping or dining.
Things slowly started to change in the last 10 to 15 years, as many developers took up land development opportunities and expanded their businesses.
Bukit Rahman Putra is now connected to an extensive network of roads and highways, including Damansara-Puchong Highway, New Klang Valley Expressway-Sungai Buloh interchange, Damansara interchange and Middle Ring Road 2. The township can also be accessed from Kota Damansara and Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh.
There are several facilities nearby such as Sungai Buloh Hospital, a KTM Komuter station and an international school.
Not too far away is the shopping district in Mutiara Perdana. There you will find the likes of Ikea, The Curve, Tesco and IPC shopping centre.
Developers like Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB) started entering Bukit Rahman Putra. They were lucky as new roads or highways and the affordable houses they were building slowly made Bukit Rahman Putra an interesting choice for buyers.
MRCB in 2014 acquired 5.7ha in Bukit Rahman Putra for RM83 million. The land has a potential gross development value (GDV) of RM559.1 million.
Most of the land is used for residential development. One of the projects is Kalista Park Homes, which has an expansive outdoor space in a gated-and-guarded community, with combined GDV of RM101 million.
It has three semi-detached houses (up to 4,600 sq ft of built-up area) and 28 units of superlink houses (up to 4,200sqftofbuilt-up area). Prices for the semi-detached units start from RM2.5 million each while that for the link houses start fromRM1.6 million.
About 1.8ha would be a commercial development with more than one million sqft of gross floor area, comprising commercial offices and shops and serviced apartments.
MALAY RESERVED LAND DEVELOPMENT
Bumiputera company Pencala Jaya Sdn Bhd is developing what is expected to be the country’s largest Malay reserved land in Bukit Rahman Putra. It is a township called Bandar Rahman Putra on 56.6ha of land.
There will be more than 2,000 apartment units for the 1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing Programme (PPA1M). Other developments include terraced houses and bungalows with commercial elements.
Pencala Jaya managing director Fatima Abd Wahab said the total GDV for the township is RM2 billion, which will be developed over five years.
“We are building a total of 6,000 units, which will add a population of about 24,000 in Bukit RahmanPutra. The current population in the 3km-6km radius of the proposed location for Bandar Rahman Putrais607,000,” she told NST Property.
Fatima said Phase 1, known as Azalea, comprises 258 units of two-storey terraced houses and 80 units of three-storey terraced houses with GDV of RM158 million.
The two-storey houses, priced from RM456,000, were launched in October last year and were fully sold.
“We recently launched three-storey houses priced at more than RM550,000 and the take-up rate is 80 per cent.
“Azalea is popular as the contemporary designs and spacious living space are carefully crafted to cater for young professionals, growing families or multi-generational living.”
Phase 2, with GDV of RM146 million, will feature 266 units of two-storey houses costing more than RM480,000 each.
Fatima said Phase 2 houses will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year.
“We want this to be an award-winning development. We have spent about RM85 million on infrastructure and landscaping.
Our next plan is to create a transport hub there.”
PROPOSED KTM KOMUTER STATION
Penchala Jaya has submitted a proposal to the Transport Ministry to build a KTM Komuter station in Taman Putra.
Fatima said the proposed station would not only benefit residents in the township but also those in the surrounding areas.
Taman Putra is surrounded by matured residential areas of Bukit Rahman Putra, Saujana Akasia, Taman Seri Putramas, Taman Mayang Jaya and Taman Aman Sari.
“With so many townships and development projects that are ongoing and also with future projects, the usage of commuter service is envisaged to be high.”
She said the population in the areas is around 607,000 and is expected to increase to about 857,000.
Kwasa Damansara (Rubber Research Institute land), a project by the Employees Provident Fund, is expected to add a population of 200,000.
Areas such as Kuang and Kundang (where Gamuda Land hasa364ha development) will add 22,000 and 33,000, respectively.
“We believe the proposed KTM station in Taman Putra will benefit the residents and those who prefer to use public transport.
They can travel from KL Sentral in Brickfields all the way to Taman Putra and surrounding neighbourhoods.”
Fatima said the plan is to build the station between the KTM Kuang and KTM Sungai Buloh stations.
“We want to create an integrated transport hub in Taman Putra where there is connectivity between rail and road. KTM Bhd has a stop in Sungai Buloh, which is linked to the light rail transit and Mass Rapid Transit Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line.
“The next stop for KTM Komuter after Sungai Buloh is Kuang. We are requesting to have a stop in Taman Putra. We have justified the request with the expected daily ridership projection.”
Fatima said the proposed KTM station in Taman Putra will benefit PPA1M house buyers.
Of the 6,000 units that Penchala Jaya is building in Taman Putra, 2,736 units will be PPA1M houses priced at RM215,000 each.