Southern Marina Residences

Yes. PPB Properties records phase one of Southern Marina as completed in 2018, and phase one is these two residential towers. The buildings, the facilities deck and the 50-metre pool are all built and in use.

The developer is Southern Marina Development Sdn Bhd, registration 201301009810 (1039652-H), a company incorporated in 2013 for this site. Its three shareholders are PPB Group Berhad (8167-W), which is listed on Bursa Malaysia; Kuok Brothers Sdn Berhad (1765-T); and Khazanah Nasional Berhad (275505-K), the Malaysian government's sovereign fund. Khazanah's involvement is not incidental — it is also a shareholder in UEM Sunrise, the landowner of Puteri Harbour.

One practical consequence of a 2018 completion that people miss. On a completed building, the seller may not be the developer at all. If you are buying a resale unit from an individual owner, you get none of the Housing Development Act protections that apply to an off-plan purchase — no statutory sale and purchase agreement, no defect liability period, no stakeholder sum. Establish who the vendor is before anything else, because it determines your entire recourse position.

Some units yes, some units no, and this is one of the few Johor projects where the answer genuinely splits inside the same building. Johor requires a non-citizen to transact a strata unit at RM1,000,000 or above and to obtain written State Authority consent. With layouts running from 769 to 2,013 sq ft, that threshold falls inside the price list rather than above or below all of it.

Roughly how it works out. The 3+1 layouts at 2,001 to 2,013 sq ft clear RM1 million comfortably at any plausible Puteri Harbour price per square foot. The 1+1 layouts at 769 to 840 sq ft would need to be transacting above about RM1,300 per square foot to qualify, which is a demanding number for this district. The 2+1 band at 1,260 to 1,324 sq ft is the one that sits closest to the line and has to be checked unit by unit. I am deliberately not printing a price here, because neither the developer nor PPB publishes one — see question 7.

Budget for the two charges that scale with price. The Johor foreign-purchase levy has been 3% of the price or RM30,000, whichever is higher, since 1 July 2025 — with a RM50,000 minimum instead of RM30,000 where the property is a serviced residence transacted below RM1 million, so RM1,000,000 is both the eligibility threshold and the line between the two minimums, and above it the 3% is larger than either; and a flat 8% stamp duty applies to residential property acquired by non-citizens from 1 January 2026, with no first-purchase relief. On a RM1.5 million unit that is RM45,000 of levy and RM120,000 of duty before legal fees and state consent fees. Also check the land title for a Sekatan Kepentingan — a restriction in interest registered on the title itself — because where one exists, State Authority consent is required for the transfer regardless of price, and it does not disappear when the unit changes hands again later.

Neither the Southern Marina project website nor PPB Properties publishes a unit count, a storey count or a per-tower breakdown. So there is no number on this page, and that is deliberate.

You will find a specific figure circulating — a total in the mid-400s, split between a 33-storey tower and a 35-storey tower. I cannot trace it to the developer, to PPB, or to any filed document, and a number I cannot trace is a number I will not repeat as fact. It may well be correct. It may equally be someone's recollection from a launch event in 2015 that has been copied forward ever since. On a building this size the difference between 456 units and, say, 500 matters to your maintenance charge and to how many identical units you compete with on resale.

What the developer does publish about density is more useful anyway, and it is unusually specific: eight units per floor served by five lifts, a minimum of two car park bays per unit, and over 70% corner units. Eight-to-five is a generous lift ratio by Malaysian high-rise standards, and it is the number that decides whether you wait for a lift at 8am. If you want the exact unit count, the strata plan at the management office has it, and I will request it.

Eight layouts in three families. 1+1 bedroom from 769 to 840 sq ft; 2+1 bedroom from 1,260 to 1,324 sq ft; 3+1 bedroom from 2,001 to 2,013 sq ft. The developer publishes four representative drawings: Type A1 at 71.47 sqm / 769 sq ft, Type A2 at 78.03 sqm / 840 sq ft, Type B3 at 121.36 sqm / 1,306 sq ft and Type C2 at 185.91 sqm / 2,001 sq ft.

The specification is where this development separates itself, and it is worth reading closely because these are the things that are expensive to retrofit. Every unit has an entrance foyer rather than a door opening straight into the living room. Ceilings are high and windows are large. Kitchens come fitted with European branded appliances; bathrooms come with imported sanitary ware and hot water systems, excluding the maid's room and the powder room. Living, dining and bedrooms are air-conditioned, excluding the maid's room. The 3+1 layouts have a 210 sq ft balcony, which the developer says was sized for entertaining.

The one figure the schedule will not give you is which stack faces what. The site wraps a cove, so the view from one face is open water and from another is the neighbouring parcel. On a completed building you do not have to guess — go and stand in the unit. That is the single biggest advantage of buying here rather than off-plan, and most buyers waste it.

Honestly, no — not if the commute is daily and not if you are counting on the RTS Link. The developer's own amenity table puts the Second Link CIQ at Tuas 18 km away and the Woodlands CIQ at the Causeway 32 km away. The RTS Link terminus at Bukit Chagar is at the Causeway end, so this is not an RTS-adjacent address and I would not price it as one.

What it is a good base for is a different life. Kota Iskandar, the Johor state administrative centre, is 3 km. Legoland, Mall of Medini and both Gleneagles and Columbia Asia hospitals are 4 km. The EduCity campuses and Raffles American School sit at 7 to 9 km, and Marlborough College Malaysia at 10 km. Senai Airport is 34 km. That is a self-contained western Iskandar Puteri life with international schooling and private healthcare inside a ten-kilometre radius — which is precisely what the households that live here are buying.

If you work in Tuas or Jurong, the Second Link at 18 km is manageable and the queues have historically been lighter than the Causeway. If you work in the Singapore CBD at 52 km, or in the Johor Bahru city centre at 24 km, you should look at this address as a weekend or family base rather than a commuter one. I would rather tell you that now than have you discover it in month two.

Both ways, and the balance depends on which end of the building you buy.

PPB describes Southern Marina as a 12.5-acre mixed development that will feature premium condominiums, residential towers, a hotel, serviced apartments and a retail podium, and records the project status as ongoing with phase one completed in 2018. No schedule for the remaining phases is published. Eight years after phase one, the rest is still land.

On the upside, and this is not a small one: you are living in a low-density enclave that was designed to be denser. No construction noise, no piling, no hoarding, and the facilities deck is shared among far fewer households than the masterplan intended. If you value quiet, the delay has worked in your favour.

On the downside, the retail podium and the hotel are the things that would have brought daily convenience and footfall to your doorstep. Without them you drive for groceries — the developer's own table puts Jaya Grocer and NSK at 7 km. And a masterplan that resumes later means a construction site next door at a date nobody has published. Before you commit, ask the management office two specific questions: whether any development order or building plan has been approved for the adjoining parcels, and what the management corporation's position is on construction access through the estate. Those two answers are worth more than any rendering.

Neither is published, by anyone official. The Southern Marina project website carries no price list and no maintenance rate, and PPB Properties' project record carries neither. So there is no number for either on this page.

On a completed building this is a slightly different problem from a new launch. There is no single developer price list, because there are two distinct markets running at once: whatever unsold developer stock remains, and resale units held by individual owners. Those two can be priced quite differently on the same day, in the same tower, for the same layout — and the negotiating dynamics are not remotely the same.

The maintenance charge matters more here than on a typical apartment, and it is worth understanding why before you ask about it. This estate maintains a facilities deck with a 50-metre pool, a tennis court, a half basketball court, a steam room and a gym, all in a marine environment on the Straits of Johor, and it does so across fewer households than the masterplan assumed. Salt air is expensive. Get the current monthly rate per square foot, the sinking fund balance and the last two years of audited management accounts in writing before you commit. I obtain those from the management office rather than from a listing, and I will tell you plainly if the numbers look thin.

Very differently at the two ends of the same building, which is the whole point of this answer.

The scale first, with the category stated so you can check it. On NAPIC's Property Market Q1 2026 figures, Johor holds 9,972 completed unsold serviced apartments — the largest serviced-apartment overhang of any state in Malaysia, out of 19,263 nationally. The separate residential category, which covers landed homes and residential-titled condominiums, records 3,852 completed unsold units in Johor. Which of those two numbers is the right comparison for Southern Marina Residences depends on the title category, and that is the point below.

Here is the split that matters. A 769 sq ft 1+1 unit is competing, in a buyer's mind, against every other compact high-rise unit in Iskandar Puteri — and there are thousands of them, many unsold. A 2,001 sq ft 3+1 with a 210 sq ft balcony inside a marina precinct is not in that pool at all; the number of directly comparable units in this district is small. Same building, same lift lobby, two completely different markets. The compact end carries the overhang risk. The large end carries a thinness risk instead — fewer rivals, but also fewer buyers when you want out.

One thing to verify rather than assume, because it changes both the category above and your monthly bills: PPB Properties classifies this development as High Rise (Commercial), while listing platforms categorise the units as serviced residences. If the strata title is commercial, expect commercial-rate assessment and commercial utility tariffs for the life of the building, and expect some banks to set a lower margin of financing. Ask your conveyancing lawyer to read the title category off the strata title itself before you sign anything. It is a five-minute check with a permanent consequence.

Thirteen, and unusually for a Malaysian development the developer numbers them on a published site map rather than listing adjectives. In order: 50-metre lap pool; children's wading pool with interactive water play; jacuzzi; gymnasium; steam room; children's playground; BBQ area; multi-purpose hall; tennis court; half basketball court; wellness and fitness gazebos; leisure pavilion; and a deck with a view to the marina.

Two of those are worth singling out. A full tennis court is rare in a two-tower development — it takes real land, and land in a marina precinct is not cheap. And a 50-metre lap pool is a swimming pool rather than a photograph; most high-rise pools in this district are 25 metres or shorter and shaped for the camera.

The question I would actually be asking on a viewing is not what is on the list but what condition it is in. Eight years of salt air on pool tiling, gym equipment, court surfaces and steam room fittings is a real test, and the answer tells you more about the management corporation than any document will. Walk the whole deck, not just the pool. Then ask for the sinking fund balance and see whether the two stories match.

Usually yes for a unit that clears the RM1 million threshold, but expect a lower margin of financing than a Malaysian buyer gets — non-resident foreign buyers are typically looking at around 60% to 70% of value — and expect the bank to lend against its own valuation rather than your agreed price.

Two things specific to this building will shape that valuation. First, the title category question in the answer above: if the strata title is commercial, several lenders apply a lower margin or add a spread to the rate as a matter of policy. Second, comparables. On the 1+1 units there are plenty of transactions in the district for a valuer to work from. On a 2,001 sq ft marina-facing unit there may be only a handful of genuinely comparable sales in recent years, and a valuer facing thin evidence discounts for the uncertainty. If the valuation comes in below the agreed price, you make up the difference in cash.

The sequence I use, and it is not glamorous: establish the vendor and the title category first, get an indicative valuation and an in-principle financing approval before the offer is firmed up, and only then run the levy and stamp duty arithmetic from question 2 to arrive at a true all-in cash figure. Doing it in that order is the difference between knowing your number and discovering it. Message me with the unit you are looking at and I will put the sequence together with you.