Living in a Cardboard Box

I have a dream....

A dream whereby my future home would be larger than 1 Utama, new and old wings combined!...

My driveway would be able to accomodate a gazillion cars parked head-to-tail...

Gushing rivers and streams would flow through my lavish gardens, bringing with them all manner of tilapia* and ikan longkang**...

Ahhh, these are the stuff which dreams are made of.

With these thoughts in my head, I set out to PWTC last Sunday to catch the final day of the Malaysian Property Exhibition 2005 with a few of my buddies.

*Tilapia is a kind of fish. Best served fried.
** Ikan Longkang is a kind of fish. Best not served at all.


The Harsh Realities

The exhibition hall was packed with all sorts of booths. Big and small, lavish and bare, impressive and downright crappy.

As we walked around, a few properties caught my eye. Hmmm.... 1,000+ sq ft condominium in the heart of KL, with opulent facilities and a mouth-watering view of the KL Twin Towers. Yes!!

I can just about picture myself in such luxurious surroundings! Sipping martinis as I lounged by a rooftop swimming pool, with the stars twinkling above me and the Petronas Towers fully lit up in the distance.

Excitedly, I checked the price of that particular unit.

Wahlaueh! The starting price is a gob-smacking RM650,000!! My earlier daydream vanished faster than you can say 'She sells sea shells by the sea shore'.

Slightly disappointed, we pressed on. After awhile, we stopped by a booth which had attractive miniatures of several terrace houses in Pantai Hillpark on display.

We began crowding around the display like a bunch of ulu people, oggling at the beautiful architecture, spacious interior and intricate detailings of the house. Sensing our excitement, a salesperson approached us and cheerfully told us that the house could be ours for a starting price of only RM750,000 .

Say that again??

I graciously thanked the salesperson and calmly walked away, saying that we'll "Think about it".

Yea, right.

Who am I kidding? The salesperson knew as well as I did that when a person says that he or she will "think about it", it basically means....

"So long, farewell! Wish I could afford it, but I cant! *sob sob*"

After an hour of browsing around, I came to this conclusion.

Property ain't cheap!


Diamond in the Rough

However, if you looked around thoroughly enough, you will undoubtedly uncover a few gems. For example, the RM240,000+, 1,100 sq ft condominium which is situated in Kelana..

Or the RM340,000, double-storey terrace house in Puchong.

Now that's more to my budg....ermm... I mean taste. Who needs all those fancy-shcmancy, luxury condos anyway right? Right??

Decisions decisions

After walking around the exhibition for an hour or so, I had collected a shite-load of brochures.

I haven't made any purchasing decisions just yet, but I felt that my information gathering mission was a success. Now it's time to go home and sift through all these brochures to see if there's anything I can afford (and which is not located in Sepang, Ulu Klang or some other far off locale).