In my recent article about why we purchased The Valley Karak Bentong, I was surprised when a prospective buyer contacted me and wanted to know more about The Valley. I thought it would be great to put in more details on what our thought process was, the challenges & concerns, and the questions we had when we were purchasing the agricultural land. I hope that my sharing will help other future prospective buyers for The Valley Karak.
Key Areas of Buying The Valley Karak Bentong
Security
How good is the security really? Although there is round-the-clock guard at both entrances to The Valley (Kerau @ Phase 1 & Phase 2), do not expect the same level of security as per your gated & guarded community in the city. For starters, there is no perimeter fencing. If your piece of land is at the corner, it will be sharing borders with privately owned land outside The Valley Karak. You can always build your own perimeter fencing surrounding your land at your own cost.
The security makes me feel safe because random people cannot enter the area. However, there are still non-owners loitering in the area because there are private resorts and retreats that welcome the general public. All in all, I have no complaints about the security. As I have mentioned before, I don’t feel safe owning a land out in the open without any form of security as I intend to build a small house to live in. It must come with some form of security to prevent accidental and intentional intruders. Owners pay RM200 per acre for security and basic services.
Street Lights
Prior to purchasing, we asked whether they would install streetlights at the road near our land, and they said they would do it after we purchased the land. But they did not and said it was not promised by the developer. We did not want to make it ugly, so we let it go. Although it was not a big thing, it left a sour taste in our mouth. Solar-powered streetlights are few and far in between, so don’t expect brightly lit roads. However, if you are driving at night, your car lights are sufficient to shine your way through. So not too much of a dealbreaker. When we are going to live there, I will buy a dozen of streetlamps and place them at the road leading to my land.
Weather
If you think it is going to be chill and cool all the time, be prepared to be very wrong. It is still very warm in the day, similar to the city. When the sun sets, it can be pretty cool and chilly. If it rains, it can also be cool. But other than that, it can be pretty heated up. While it may be windy, it is not windy at all times. In the morning, there can be fog and mist, but it will clear up as soon as the sun is up.
Prepping The Land
The land is sold to you as-is. The Valley Karak was once part of Sang Lee’s rubber estate. It was sold to the developer, and they divided the land into individual plots, built the drainage and tarred roads for easy access. Hence, the land is sort of a secondary jungle which requires land clearing, cleaning, terracing – depending on the land you have purchased. Ours comes with a steep slope, hence we engaged an earthwork contractor to assist us in clearing and terracing it to make it usable.
Cost of Land Clearing & More
As mentioned above, we needed to make the land usable, so we engaged an earthwork contractor. Our 1.1-acre land costs RM7K to clean and terrace – so the terraces are easily accessible via foot. Below are all other related costs:
- Earthwork & clearing the land: RM7K
- Drainage to direct water flow and prevent corrosion: RM33K
- Retaining wall (blocks of rocks @ RM500 each): Approx RM30K?
- Retaining wall (second round to prevent corrosion on one of the terraces): Approx 15K+?
- Planting grass to prevent corrosion (@ RM1,500 per truck): 7 lorries RM10.5K
- Simple cabin (to store garden tools): RM6K + RM1.5K repair works (when the gardener fell a termite-infested tree, and it fell on the cabin)
- Water supply: RM2K to get water connected to the land
- Water accessories: RM4K+ (2 large water tanks, roles of pipes, connectors, valves, etc.)
- Water piping for all plants: RM7K to fix piping and water sprinklers
- Fruit trees & planting them: Estimated RM6K+ including replacing trees that have been destroyed by wild boars, died due to disease or extreme weather.
All in all, we put in about RM100K plus minus to make our land at The Valley Karak what it is today.
Process of Buying The Land
The process of buying an agricultural land is similar to buying any property. The developer will prepare the S&P and you will need to sign and pay the initial 10%. Thereafter, depending on whether you are taking a loan or paying in full, you will need to settle the balance within a specified time frame. After that you will need to do the Memorandum of Transfer (MOT). If you have paid in full, once your lawyer gets all the necessary paperwork done, you will receive the official land title in your name. A few things to note:
- You only need to pay cukai tanah, there is no cukai pintu for this piece of agricultural land (not sure if it is the same across all states in Malaysia)
- Engage your own lawyer when buying land – safeguard your own interest as always
- If you’d like to get a bank loan, be forewarned that it is different from a residential property loan. Rates are higher and the financing margin is much lower.
Contractors
It is easy to get contractors in The Valley Karak as there are many different contractors working on existing owner’s land. We worked with an earthwork contractor, a builder, and a gardener. Below are some tips when engaging any contractor:
- Credibility: ask for references and testimonials if possible.
- Sample of work: check if they have done similar work in the area, ask to see if any
- Agree on a timeframe & cost: this is tricky because some will promise you the moon but will not be able to deliver within the timeframe. You may also be surprised with escalating costs as you commit to a project. Before you start an ambitious project with a contractor, ask him to work on a small piece of project, so you can monitor and decide if you want to work with him on bigger projects like building your house. Eg. Ask the contractor to build you a shed, a retaining wall or the cement road – then gauge his reliability and ability to complete the job within your expectations.
- Communicate verbally & in written: Summarize your conversation on Whatsapp if needed. So that you always have a reference and a written proof if needed.
- Payments: If you have made payments, make sure you follow up with a note on Whatsapp and keep records. We have never had any issue so far, but never take things for granted when it comes to money.
We did not have a very good experience with one of the contractors – so a note of caution for prospective buyers. If your contractor is non-responsive (always late, forgot, wife/grandmother/cat is always sick, forgot your appointment, late responding or any similar excuses), let him finish the work and cut him loose. He may have other projects that he is focused on (larger monetary gains?) and may have less incentive to work on yours. Ours took more than 8 months to do a simple straightforward drainage for, and on top of that did a bad job.
Ongoing Cost
Just like buying any type of property, there are ongoing costs for land purchase too. If you are maintaining a farm, you will need a farm hand to assist in upkeep of your plants and regular watering. We have a gardener that helps us to water the plants, manage the fruit trees (fertilizer, pesticide etc.), and cuts the grass. The monthly cost is RM1,000 at the moment, but will be revised if there is an increase in cost and manpower.
Additionally, if you have piped water to your land, do note that water is in commercial rates. Depending on how much water you use to water your plants, the water itself can be a couple of hundreds a month. During warm months, do expect to pay more.
Enjoy the journey of owning a piece of The Valley Karak Bentong
As with everything, there are bumps along the way in our journey to purchasing the land and beyond. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the process of going through all the nitty-gritty details and learning as we went along. I hope that our experience with The Valley Karak will benefit you as a future owner. Drop us a note and say hello – we will be happy to have a new neighbor on our contact list.