Rent Now or Wait for 2028? CORE Residence, TRX Residences and Golden Crown Compared

Tun Razak Exchange asks buyers a question that few other districts in Kuala Lumpur force so sharply: do you want a home and an income now, or a lower entry price and a two-year wait? The district's residential supply has matured to the point where both answers are genuinely available. Two freehold towers are complete and handed over inside the financial district, and a third project positioned on its edge is selling a cheaper leasehold entry that only delivers in 2028. For a landlord or an investor, the decision is less about which building is better and more about what the timing does to your cashflow, your financing and your holding period.

CORE Residence @ TRX, on Persiaran TRX 2, is the first residential address completed inside the district itself, and it is freehold — a combination that matters because much of the surrounding city-centre stock is leasehold. Developed by CORE Precious Development, a joint venture between China Communications Construction Group and WCT Holdings, it holds 580 units across Towers 1 and 2 in one- to three-bedroom layouts, priced from RM1,365,133 for the entry 624 sq ft one-bedroom at about RM2,187 per square foot. Because the towers are handed over, a buyer moves in rather than waiting through a construction schedule, steps directly into the TRX MRT interchange where the Kajang and Putrajaya lines meet, and has The Exchange TRX mall and the district's ten-acre elevated park at the doorstep. The building carries GBI Gold and LEED green-building certification. For an investor, the practical point is that the unit can be let from the day it is bought, and the rent it achieves can be checked against real transacted evidence rather than projected from a brochure.

TRX Residences is the other completed option, and Lendlease's development is the larger of the two. Built in joint venture with TRX City Sdn Bhd, it comprises two towers of 53 and 57 storeys holding 896 units, topped out in September 2023 and handed over in 2024. Layouts run across 13 types from a 474 sq ft one-bedroom studio from RM1,000,000 — roughly RM2,109 per square foot — up to a 1,646 sq ft three-bedroom home, and residents share more than 90,000 sq ft of facilities across three dedicated levels, including infinity pools, sky lounges, landscaped terraces, a gym and kids' play zones, with direct access to the ten-acre TRX City Park. The wider masterplan calls for six residential towers in total, so the district's residential population is still growing around an already-occupied building. Like CORE, it is freehold, GBI Gold and LEED certified, and finished — which means the same advantage applies: immediate occupancy, immediate rent, and a building whose management and occupancy can be inspected in person.

Golden Crown Residence @ TRX takes the opposite approach and prices accordingly. Standing on Jalan Tun Razak beside the district, developed by Multibay Development Sdn Bhd under the Golden Eagle Group, it is a single leasehold tower of 490 units across five layout types, from a 624 sq ft one-bedroom suite at RM1,280,000 (about RM2,051 per square foot) to a 1,023 sq ft two-bedroom dual-key layout at RM2,179,000. The lease is a 99-year term running to February 2111, the building provides 492 carparks, and the rooftop is anchored by a sky infinity pool overlooking the KL skyline alongside a wading pool, gym, library and multipurpose hall. It sits a one-minute walk from the TRX MRT interchange, close to The Exchange TRX mall, HSBC, TREC KL and the Royal Selangor Golf Club. The one number that separates it from the completed pair is the calendar: completion is slated for August 2028, close enough to feel near and far enough that the buyer pays progressively through the build and collects nothing until vacant possession.

Stripped to its arithmetic, the choice is between earning on a completed unit and waiting on a cheaper one. A completed freehold residence at TRX, whether CORE Residence from RM1,365,133 or TRX Residences from RM1,000,000, produces rental income from the day of handover, and its price is already a proven number that the market has transacted on. Golden Crown's entry from RM1,280,000 is lower than CORE's and higher than TRX Residences' studio start, but the buyer there forgoes roughly two years of rent, carries progressive payments through the construction period, and takes on the risk that the completed value in 2028 differs from the price list signed in 2026. The offset is that an off-plan purchase is often the way to buy a specific address at a price that completed stock has already moved past. The honest way to compare the two is to write down, side by side, the rent a completed TRX unit can realistically achieve today, the financing cost of carrying the off-plan buy through the build, and the price per square foot each option asks — then let the numbers, not the sales gallery, decide which side of the trade suits you.

For a landlord whose plan depends on income, the completed freehold pair is the more predictable route: CORE Residence offers the district's first freehold address with immediate occupancy from RM1,365,133, and TRX Residences offers a larger, established building with 896 units and a lower entry at RM1,000,000. Both let now, both can be inspected, and both remove the construction-timeline risk from the equation. For a buyer whose priority is the lowest possible entry into the TRX address — or who wants the leasehold structure and the dual-key flexibility of the 1,023 sq ft layout — Golden Crown Residence offers it from RM1,280,000, but asks for patience until August 2028 and accepts a 99-year lease running to 2111 rather than freehold title. Owner-occupiers should weigh the same facts differently again: immediate handover removes the wait and delivers a home now, while the 2028 completion can let a buyer save towards the purchase and choose fittings before the building exists. None of these three is universally right; each answers a different balance of entry price, tenure and time.

The decision at TRX is ultimately a trade between price and time, and the two completed freehold towers, CORE Residence @ TRX from RM1,365,133 and Lendlease's TRX Residences from RM1,000,000, stand on one side of it while Golden Crown Residence's 2028 leasehold tower from RM1,280,000 stands on the other. Before committing, confirm tenure on the title rather than the brochure, measure the actual walk to the MRT interchange, check the maintenance fee the unit will carry every month, and be candid about how a 2028 completion sits against your financing and your intended holding period. I help landlords and investors across TRX and the wider Kuala Lumpur financial district compare completed and off-plan options on the numbers that follow them — price per square foot, rent actually achieved, tenure, completion timelines and carrying costs. Message me with your budget, whether the unit is for living in or letting, and which of these three you are weighing, and I will walk you through the comparison before you book.