Erm, I wouldn’t encourage to buy 22 Macalisterz as your home or residential purpose because this is not a residential land / usage. If you were to purchase it as own use or own stay purpose, you have to accept the fact that you might face a lots of strangers in and out because the project itself qualify to have homestay or AirBnb business. 

Also minor issue would be the assessment rate and utility bill would be charged at commercial rate. Of course you can try to apply the electricity rate to residential rate but the assessment I don’t think you can convert it.

I wouldn’t be that optimistic yet for the investment perspective and I can only conclude it after economy slightly recovering from Covid-19 because the current rental rate of similar competitor i.e. Tropicana 218 Macalister doesn’t give me much confident. 

To know more about the rental rate you can refer to the next section.

Current ROI of the similar property which is Tropicana 218 Macalister will be around 2% to 3% for fixed monthly income. If the economy recovering from Covid-19 and homestay / AirBnb business is allowed again then the ROI of rental rate might be even higher. You can be optimistic for 22 Macalisterz because completion around 2025.

PSF of 22 Macalisterz will be RM 1,280 onward which Tropicana 218 Macalister (similar property) will be around RM 1,000 onward. 

Now, you might be wondering “wah, Tropicana 218 Macalister PSF even cheaper”. Well, in terms of PSF, yes. If you can look at the size of Tropicana 218 Macalister, it is from 378 sq ft to 1,299 sq ft. The size is much bigger than 22 Macalisterz.

Therefore, the PSF is just a metrics / math formula. 

Example shown below will be some calculation I found from other agent and website, do refer rationally ya.

Short Term Rent Calculation (Based on Current Macalister Airbnb Market):
First we set up some baseline assumption that per unit cost RM200/Night (low peak) for 1 room, RM300/night for 2 room.

Occupancy rate assume on 3 night per weeks(Friday Saturday Sunday),

4 night per weeks (Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun), and Peak (6 days occupied 1 day vacant)

Airbnb Concept 340sqft calculation:
Assume RM200 per night for Just 12 days (Low Peak Fri, Sat, Sun) = RM2,400 | 5.6% ROI.

Assume RM200 per night for just 16 days( Typical Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun) = RM3,200 | 7.5% ROI

Assume RM200 per night for just 27 days ( Peak 90% occupancy) = RM5,400 12.6% ROI

Airbnb Concept 497sqft calculation:
Assume RM300 per night for only 12 days (Low Peak Fri, Sat, Sun) = RM3,600 | 6.02% ROI

Assume RM300 per night for just 16 days (Typical Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun) = RM4,800 | 8.05% ROI

Assume RM300 per night for just 27 days (Peak 90% occupancy) = RM8,100 | 13.5% ROI. 

I would say the calculation and assumption above is OK, you can do some research currently due to Covid-19, some room per day is RM 150. So, by assuming RM 200 when economy recovering, I think it’s ok, reasonable.

Do remember to factor in your maintenance fees and your miscellaneous for operating homestay or AirBnb business.

From my perspective, I would say ok, not easy and not hard to sell it in the future because currently similar competitor or property would be Tropicana 218 Macalister which is just directly opposite to 22 Macalisterz and density of both condominium appear to be acceptable for me. (do remind me if I’ve omitted any building)

If you’re buying for investment, your future buyers could be frequent business travellers, AirBnb or homestay business operator, people looking to own a weekend or holiday home in Georgetown, Penang and etc.

At first I did felt weird because of the 22 Macalisterz does not allocate parking lot for owners / purchasers. And I did felt ridiculous but very soon I laughed at myself because we do have a few existing projects in Penang that don’t allocate parking lot for purchasers. 

It just happen to be short memory lost. (ha….ha….ha…). Some examples of projects that do not allocate parking lots for purchasers would be Moulmein Rise, One One Eight @ Island Plaza and etc.

Don’t get nervous ya, I’ll explain now. By referring to these projects, I would say 22 Macalisterz will offer seasonal pass/ seasonal parking to dear owners. I would assume 1 car park for each unit @ 0 (zero) cost and if in the foreseeable future if the car park slot is sufficient I would say you might be able to apply from management for 2 or even 3 car parks. This is the case for Moulmein Rise and some condo where an owner I know managed to get 4 car parks from the management of Moulmein Rise.

As I mentioned, what I know will be what you know. The Sky Bar is not confirmed or final yet and according to developer EXSIM, by the time of completion if there’s new concept or hot trend then developer will bring in.

Convenient spot and heart of Penang where most people also wish to have a decent property here. Well, it’s real town area, so I wouldn’t comment much about traffic jam / traffic congestion

As usual, from a conservative point of view, I would say ok, if you’re buying property to hedge against inflation you can consider 22 Macalisterz as well because the rental ROI should be safe enough to offset your bank interest.

One thing that I don’t pretty much OK is that the Sky Pool and Sky Bar is opened for public. So, if I’m understanding correctly, those not coming for homestay can get accessed to the sky pool. 

If everything goes well, there will be Sky Bar and yes I agree that it must be opened to the public so that it can attract attention and advertise your property as well.

If it’s possible, if I were one of the owners, I would recommend the management to charge fees for accessing the Sky Pool for non-homestay visitor. Also, owners can expect a decrease in management fees if the car park income is doing good since the car park is payment car park that opened for public by hourly rate.

Simple conclusion, if you can accept minimum monthly fixed rental of RM 1,800 or RM 2,400 for AirBnb or homestay business, I think you can proceed for a unit selection. (gentle reminder: this is just a minimum return and conservative points of view, I haven’t factor in capital appreciation because it’s very subjective)