Vilaris Courtyard @ The Sanctuary, Batu Uban

Fifty-six. Runnymede Group’s website, The Star and the summary on the government register all give the same number, on a 5.3-acre site.

They are three-storey courtyard homes, which the register files as terrace houses. No further phase is planned: the developer calls Vilaris the final landed phase of The Sanctuary.

Yes, according to the developer, whose page describes 5.3 acres of freehold land. The Star’s 2017 report adds that it is a freehold strata development with individual titles, which matches the Schedule H agreement shown on the register.

In practice that means you own the house and share the roads, gardens and guardhouse with the other owners through a management body. Your solicitor’s title search is the final word on tenure and on any charge or caveat against the house you are buying.

The Star reported lots of 24 ft by 80 ft and built-up areas of 3,940 to 5,264 sq ft in 2017, with four bedrooms plus one extra room. The developer’s marketing drawings list the intermediate Type A1a at 3,939 sq ft and Type A2a, the same house with a lift, at 3,952 sq ft. The Star’s earlier reports gave different ranges, and the register records 355 sq m for the house type, so measure the specific house.

The layout runs over three floors: a garden suite with its own entrance on the ground floor, living, dining, kitchen and terraces on the second, bedrooms on the third, all arranged around an internal courtyard. Some homes were built with a home lift.

Possibly, depending on the house. Penang Island requires a non-citizen to pay at least RM3,000,000 for landed or landed-strata property, and the old permit band runs from RM1,688,000 to RM4,245,000 — so the answer is decided by the price in the agreement for that particular house.

A non-citizen purchase also needs state consent, attracts a 3% state levy on approval and a flat 8% stamp duty, and the property cannot be resold for three years. Tell me your nationality and budget and I will check the specific house against the rules before you travel to view.

The certificate of completion and compliance is dated 4 April 2016 on the government register, and Runnymede Group’s website gives 2016 as the completion year.

The first sale and purchase agreement on record dates from 29 March 2013. With the estate now ten years old, what matters is the condition of the individual house and how well the common areas have been kept.

The developer’s site layout plan keys five versions of the same three-storey courtyard house across the 56 lots — intermediate, intermediate with a lift, special corner with a lift, corner and end lot — so position decides most of it. Compare a house beside the linear garden or the park with one further along the lane, an end lot with an intermediate one, and a higher plot with a lower one — the land slopes, so outlook and the walk from the gate vary.

Then compare condition: original finishes or renovated, with or without a home lift, and how the courtyard and ground-floor suite have been altered. I cannot publish which houses are for sale, but I can tell you what is available this month.

The only public price information is the government permit band of RM1,688,000 to RM4,245,000 — the band on the advertising permit, not the price of any unit, and one that dates from the developer’s original sales. I do not repeat asking prices from property portals.

The maintenance charge and sinking fund are not published. Message me and I will get the current figures from the management office, together with the asking price of any house you are considering, in writing.

Same developer, same hill, 435 m apart in a straight line — and opposite products. Triuni Residences is 552 freehold condominiums in three towers of 21 to 23 storeys, completed between 2022 and 2025, with homes from 840 to 1,916 sq ft and a shared pool deck.

Vilaris is 56 landed homes of 3,940 sq ft and up, with a private courtyard in place of shared resort facilities. If you want a lock-up-and-leave home with a pool, read the Triuni page. If you want your own front door, a porch for several cars and room for parents downstairs, this is the one.

For daily life: SMJK Phor Tay and Lotus’s Sungai Dua are each 1.3 km away in a straight line, SJK(C) Kwang Hwa 1.7 km, Queensbay Mall 1.6 km and Pantai Hospital Penang 4.0 km. The Sungai Nibong express bus terminal is 867 m away, on the far side of the main road.

For letting: a house of this size suits a family rather than students, so think of senior staff posted to the Bayan Lepas industrial zone or academics at USM, 1.1 km away. I do not quote rental figures; ask me what comparable houses in the estate have actually been let for.