Pros and Cons of Living in Condo in Malaysia

Malaysians generally prefer living in landed properties such as linked house, semi-D or bungalow because of convenience, accessibilities and life style. However, due to land becomes more and more scarce as a resources, developers have been building mostly high rise condo in Klang Valley areas.

So what are the Pros and Cons of living in the high rise condo? This quick guide is for those people who haven’t lived in condo before as a reference and for your considerations.

Pros

1. High Security : Most modern condominiums have good security measure in place, such as few levels of security access control at the guard house, car park entrance, lift level access control and with sufficient security guards around to safeguard your loved ones. You can live in the modern condo with peace of mind that no unwanted intruder may break into your house and you can feel safe most of the time.
2. Accessibilities and convenience: Modern condo in Malaysia are usually built near-by to the city centre and amenities. You are not required to travel long distance to your work place or to your favorite shopping centres.
3. Maintenance by management: You will have more free time focusing on doing what you like without spending too much time on cleaning and maintaining the landed properties. Good condo management will take care of cleanliness and maintenance of the condo and all you need to do is to pay the rental, or pay the maintenance fee to enjoy the services.
4. Facilities: Last but not least, you get to enjoy the facilities of the condo, such as swimming pool, gym, jogging track, landscape. You and your family members can foster good relationship by enjoying these fun activities together at anytime.

Cons

1. Less Privacy & Noise Pollution: Living in condo, the first biggest disadvantage is you will have less privacy. Meaning you will hear many unwanted noises, such as upstairs neighbor foot step noises and many other weird noises that they may be producing, renovation noise pollution, highway noise pollution and etc. In short, you need to have good luck to be surrounded by good neighbors. What if they are chain smokers, and you maybe smelling the second smoke all days. What if they are cooking all the time because they are running a F&B business in the condo, then you will be smelling the nasi lemak sambal cooking all the time. So in short, condo is good, but neighbors can be the problem. Other noise pollution from neighbors: Hi-Fi stomping noise, kids noise, music instruments noise, shopping mall compressor noise and so on. But don’t be intimated by my advice, chances are you may not hear these noises all the time or you may get used to it eventually.
2. Water bill is expensive: Condo will be charging monthly water bill to you around RM50. Comparing to living in the linked house, the water bill is much lower or even free.
3. Car Park accessibilities : Living in condo also means you need to drive your car in and out of the car park. If your car park locates at the lower floor, congrat. If your car park is at the higher floor, then it’s very troublesome to get in and out from your condo. You will easily spend few minutes just to turn round and round in the car park floors just to get out to buy something. This is one of the reasons why people living in the condo like to order Grab or Food Panda.
4. Less fresh air: Living in the city areas may mean less fresh air and MORE DUST for you and your family. So don’t underestimate the problem of dust if you are living in the city areas with more cars and less greenery.