The V by Jesselton

Do the arithmetic before you do anything else. The developer published an estimated selling price from RM650 per square foot in May 2025 and a starting price from RM290,000 in July 2025. Its largest published layout is 1,090 sq ft. At the developer’s own indicated rate, that top layout works out at roughly RM708,500 — which is below RM1,000,000.

That matters because of a contradiction I am not going to resolve for you. The Bar Council Conveyancing Practice Committee’s state table records Sabah’s minimum purchase price for residential property acquired by a non-citizen as RM1,000,000. A separate figure of RM600,000 for high-rise strata circulates widely, attributed to a state circular I have not been able to read in text form. Under the first figure, essentially nothing in this development would be transactable to a foreigner. Under the second, most of it would be.

Separately, the Corporate Suites are a different question again. Sabah commercial property is recorded as restricted to foreign companies incorporated in Malaysia, including property intended for tourism use — so an individual foreign buyer is likely out of that component entirely, at any price.

If you hold a Malaysian passport, none of this applies and the whole schedule is open to you. If you do not — and Malaysian permanent residents are treated as foreign interest here — get a written ruling from the Sabah Lands and Surveys Department, through a Sabah conveyancing solicitor, for your specific unit and price, before you pay a booking fee.

Both come from the developer, three months apart, and both are still on its website. The unveiling release dated 23 July 2025 says RM1.4 billion. The groundbreaking release dated 6 October 2025 says RM1.5 billion.

The later figure is the one to use, because it is the later figure — but the honest reading is that the scheme was still being sized between those two dates. Gross development value is a developer’s planning number, not a price you pay, so it should not change your decision. It should change how much weight you put on any other number published in that same window.

The total unit count is still not published as a single number, but the developer fact sheet now sets the building out tower by tower.

Height: Towers A, B and C are 39 storeys; Tower D is 40 storeys. The development has five components in all. The facility legends place a deck at Level 40 in Towers A, B and C, which on a 39-storey tower is most likely the roof deck — confirm the floor numbering on the plans.

Units per floor: Tower A 19, Tower B 22, Tower C 14, Tower D 6, and the fact sheet lists 5 lifts. Multiplying units per floor by storeys does not give a reliable total, because podium, facility and commercial floors carry no suites.

The exact unit count per tower appears on the advertising and sale permit. Ask for the permit, not for a brochure.

Practically, it usually means the land and the approvals were never the bottleneck. Yayasan Sabah is the state foundation, and a coastal parcel of this size in Kota Kinabalu does not come onto the open market often.

Legally, it means you should ask a very specific question rather than assuming comfort: which entity is the registered proprietor of the title, is it a Country Lease or a Town Lease under the Sabah Land Ordinance, what is the unexpired term, and is there a restriction in interest endorsed on it? A restriction in interest is the line that determines whether a transfer to a non-citizen can be registered at all.

Ask also whether the units are being sold under a sale and purchase agreement with the developer directly, and who signs as vendor. In joint venture structures those are not always the same party.

Decide by unit size first, because the towers do not overlap the way the marketing implies.

Tower A has the full range, 425 to 1,090 sq ft, and three of the four 860 sq ft dual-suite codes. Tower B is a serviced-suite tower with the same areas under alternate codes — B2 for B1, C2 for C1, D1 for D2 — so it is where you look when a Tower A stack has gone. Tower C is a different animal: six codes, every one a one-bedroom, the largest 596 sq ft, with its own facility deck at Level 9 rather than the shared Level 6 podium.

There is a real trap here. The same type codes appear in more than one tower at different areas. A1 is 425 sq ft in Towers A and B but 447 sq ft in Tower C. B1 is 525 in Tower A and 579 in Tower C. C1 is 625 in Tower A and 596 in Tower C. Check the tower letter on the booking form, every time.

The developer lists permanent sea views as a headline feature. Treat that as a design statement, then test it.

What supports it: the site fronts Likas Bay directly, and the Kota Kinabalu Wetland nearby is a Ramsar-designated site, which is a legal conservation status rather than a marketing promise. Along a 7 km promenade with a protected wetland behind it, the odds of a tower rising directly in front of a bay-facing unit are genuinely lower than in the city centre.

What does not support it: no developer controls land it does not own. If your purchase decision rests entirely on the view, ask which stacks face the water squarely, ask what is zoned on the parcels immediately in front, and put the unit number and orientation in writing on the booking form.

The developer fact sheet gives completion as 54 months from the date of the sale and purchase agreement. Ground was broken on 6 October 2025 with China State Construction as contractor, and the developer describes structural works as progressing through 2026. Because the clock starts on your own SPA date, a buyer who signs in October 2026 is looking at around April 2031 — work out your date before you sign, and check that the agreement itself states the same 54 months, because that clause is the only completion date that binds anyone.

On price, what exists publicly is an estimated RM650 per square foot from May 2025 and a from-RM290,000 headline from July 2025. Neither is a price list, and both are more than a year old. I get the live schedule and the current stack availability from the developer. Message me and I will send this week’s version, tower by tower.

The developer designs for it — short-stay ready is one of its eight headline features, and the location tiering leans on the convention centre, the beach park and the wetland reserve rather than on an office district.

Two cautions. First, no operator is named for The V, unlike some other Kota Kinabalu projects where an in-house hospitality arm is contracted from day one. Design intent is not an operating agreement — if you are relying on managed letting, ask who will run it and on what terms.

Second, short-stay letting in a strata building is governed by the building’s house rules and by local authority policy, both of which can change after you buy. Ask whether the management corporation by-laws being drafted will permit nightly letting, and get the answer in writing rather than from a sales conversation.

Stamp duty on transfer: a flat 8% has applied to non-citizens on residential property since 1 January 2026, and the legislation names service apartments and SOHO expressly. On a RM700,000 suite that is RM56,000 on top of the price.

Real property gains tax on exit: 30% for a disposal in years one to five, 10% from year six onwards, with no zero band at any holding period. The Bar Council circular records a retention sum of 7% of the disposal price held at the point of sale.

Financing and consent: foreign buyers in Malaysia typically obtain 60% to 70% margin. Add state consent costs, legal fees on the consent application, and the cost of the written eligibility ruling you should be getting before you book. Budget those as a block, not as an afterthought.

No. The developer fact sheet states that units come without a car park bay. Parking is by season pass, which the fact sheet estimates at around RM150 per month — an estimate, not a fixed rate.

If you need a car, budget that as a running cost alongside the service charge, and if you plan to rent the unit out, remember your tenant faces the same cost. Ask whether season parking is assured for owners or first-come, and who sets the rate.

The developer fact sheet gives these rates per square foot:

• Serviced suites: RM0.45 service charge + RM0.05 sinking fund
• Office: RM0.30 + RM0.03
• Shops: RM0.36 + RM0.04

Each is subject to 8% SST on top. For a 600 sq ft suite that works out to RM300 a month before tax, about RM324 with SST.

These are the developer’s initial figures; the actual charge is set by the management body after handover and can change. The formula that apportions shared costs between suites, offices and shops is still not published — ask for it.