Saffron Hills - Our Dream Home In The Making...

Entrance Path to Denai Alam

Denai Alam, a secluded township 10KM from Shah Alam city has been one of our favourite places to reside in Klang Valley. Connected by the Guthrie Corridor Expressway and away from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur.

Our discovery of Denai Alam for the first time was approximately 3 years ago, thanks to Shane bhai but at that time, we just couldn't afford to pay the price of the properties.

The unique bit of Denai Alam lies in the developer behind the whole project, Sime Darby Property Berhad with accolades of high-end projects in Malaysia that are well thought-off and features unique architectures. Denai Alam is no different in presenting the hallmark of Sime Darby in terms of township development.

A year ago, we were browsing for properties in Denai Alam and we even got a property agent to show us available units, among the various types of properties, Opulenia made us wish we had the money to get our dream home, but as it was, unfortunately, a dream!

Since then, we kept Denai Alam on our vision board with a wish that we would be able to afford the homes there when the opportunities arises. 3 weeks ago, I was on the line with Iman and he mentioned that on the coming weekend, Sime Darby would be holding a property launch of Saffron Hills and the sales would be done by balloting.

The reason I decided on creating this entry, apart from sharing our joy is to give a glimpse to future property purchasers on what to expect when it comes to property balloting. One day after my birthday, on 3rd November 2012, we stood early morning at Denai Alam Sales Gallery to see what our fortune has in store for us.

The night before, we placed our masterplan in action, with us, Shane and Iman looking forward to get a hold of our own abodes, we needed to ensure that our chances are secured, thus we managed to get Iman's parents to join us as bidders.

Afriza decided to bring along Rania (our li'l Ms Lucky Charm) since neither of us had ever won even an iron or voucher on company lucky draws. We registered and took our seats in the make shift canopy where the bidding would be held. Ballot boxes were separated by bumiputera and non-bumiputera categories. Right beside the stage, they placed the Denai Alam masterplan that depicted Saffron Hill's location.

A perfect location, a perfect home, all we needed now is our numbers being called the earliest so that we could pick the unit that we want. The night before, I marked the numbers of prospect units that we would want, primarily they were the end units of Single Frontage but also taking into account the Double Frontage units which featured an amazing view of the vast greeneries and gardens from the living room and master bedroom.

The balloting started and we held our breath as they began dipping the ballot boxes. We could hear the joyful cheers of people whose numbers were called, and with every dip, our wishes of seeing our prospect homes going away into far horizon of dreams were just becoming more so obvious.

0125! Did I hear it correctly? I presumed I did and I heard the emcee announcing my number again! At that moment I realised, that I never won any petty lucky draws because The Almighty kept my luck for something truly worthy, and this was moment indeed! Of course, having Rania as a our lucky charm might have been the boost to our luck!

As I inched nearer to the moment of picking my dream home, I realised that most of the Single Frontage end lot units were already taken up, which left me with either settling down with the intermediate Single Frontage or intermediate Double Frontage which cost slightly more but the unobstructed view was the added motivator.

Phase H2 Double Frontage

It was my turn to pick our unit, marked in red area above, I made my pick on unit number 11. I walked away smiling in securing my future home, oh and did I mention that the completion would be in 1Q of 2015? That would give us 2 years of anticipatingly waiting for our home. Lacking the drama that usually unfolds in my life's greatest moments, a lady that was in line after me approached me and asked on which unit I picked. Upon sharing my unit, she quizzically asked me how was it possible when her friend, who was the first person picked during balloting picked the same unit.

I approached the registration staff who was already overwhelmed with taking the bookings and they too couldn't answer me properly. I thought, as long as my name was on the registration list, they could not revert to any other units, but I feared it absolutely nevertheless.

Consistently annoying them, I realised that they misplaced her booking into number 9 instead of number 11. They recommended a switch but well, I wouldn't want to just give in easily. After a good back and forth, I just comically said, "I should just dump the idea and get myself the end-unit" and Shane stood up, from far back and said, "bro! the unit is available, take it!!!".

That is an additional value, way above the intended amount we had in mind but I just got Shane and Afriza to work out the additional instalment amount monthly and it seemed pretty viable especially with the positive thought of having some increase in my salary. I just ran to the front, before that too is taken up by someone and got my name down for the unit number  1 (ONE)!!!

Our Future Home's Artist Impression

We placed our booking and now would be the submission to various banks for our Home Mortgage and I will be crafting another entry on that, because being a first-time home buyer, I really could have used some guidance and looking for those information online did not help much either.

It is truly a great feeling to have achieved another major milestone for our lives and there are no words that could amount to our appreciation to The Almighty.