House Hunting

Warisan Villa at Nilai Impian
Warisan Villa at Nilai Impian.
Photo by Wuan.

At 44, I feel old already, and tired. I would like to think it is the weather but I know there is more to it. At this age, I am thinking of retreating to some place where the weather is less harsh, the air fresher and the scenery greener. Short of settling down in a kampung, which I really do not mind, I am looking for a place farther away from the city, where the pace is less hectic. I do not need to live in a happening place. In this phase of my life, I can do with less excitement.

In view of that, Wuan and I have been hunting for an ideal house that we can truly call home. We prefer one with a small plot of land, at the very least, space for some of our favourite plants to flourish and bloom. We also figured that it would cost us less to get a house now than when we retire. The price of houses built 10 years ago have increased twofold and we foresee the same trend 10 years down the road.

Most of the development in the areas that we liked in the Klang Valley are way beyond our budget. We took our search farther south, to areas that are new but developing. Nilai Impian was one of the developing townships that we went snopping around. It took us about 30 minutes over a distance of 40 km from Pandan Perdana via the Middle Ring Road 2, Kuala Lumpur-Seremban Expressway and the North-South Expressway. It is just off the Nilai interchange and not as far away as we had anticipated.

According to the brochure, Nilai Impian is a 680 acres freehold “Lake Garden Township” built for garden living with lakes, playground, pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths. What we really like is that the township also features low density residential development, 2 landscaped lakes and open parks to promote recreational activities. The other plus point is that Nilai Impian is being developed by Negara Properties Realty Sdn Bhd, a member of the Sime Darby Group, which is one of the more reputable property developers in Malaysia. Despite that, I still cannot envision settling down in Nilai and Negeri Sembilan. Well, I never thought I would be living in Kuala Lumpur but here I am.