City Residence Review 2026 — 202 Units, 460–5,600 sqft

Part of my Tanjung Tokong 2026 buyer's guide. For the full corridor read — every project, PSF band, foreign-buyer angle and honest catch — start there. This piece drills into one specific decision within it.

202 units, 460 sqft at the bottom, 5,600 sqft at the top. That spread is the first thing to understand about City Residence, because almost every headline figure you will read about the building — the RM700,000 entry, the RM850–980 psf — only makes sense once you know which end of it a given listing sits at. Ivory Properties finished this freehold mixed-use address in Tanjung Tokong in 2017, and nine years on it behaves like two or three different products sharing one lobby.

Key takeaways:

• Freehold, 202 units, Ivory Properties, completed 2017 — settled resale stock, not a launch.
• Confirmed entry is RM700,000 for a 1,250 sqft unit; 3-bed listings run RM850–980 psf. The RM600,000 studio price floating around on a portal guide has no live listing behind it.
• 460 to 5,600 sqft in one building — studio-scale at one end, near-landed scale at the other.
• Residential above, commercial below — convenience on the doorstep, with the footfall that comes with it.
• Foreign buyers should shortlist the larger 3-beds; anything priced near the entry would not clear the RM1,000,000 island minimum.

One Address, Three Different Products

A 460 sqft studio and a 5,600 sqft unit do not share a buyer, a tenant or a psf, even when they share a lift lobby. At the small end City Residence is a compact-quantum play — a single occupant or a landlord looking for the cheapest ticket into Tanjung Tokong. In the middle sit the 3-bedroom family units, which is where nearly all of the confirmed live listings cluster. At the top, the largest layouts approach landed-house floor area on a strata title, and they attract a buyer who wants space more than a view or a brand.

The practical consequence: never take a quoted psf at face value here. Ask the size first, then decide whether RM850–980 psf is cheap or expensive for what is actually on offer.

The RM700,000 Entry Is Verified; the RM600,000 Studio Is Not

Every 3-bedroom unit we could confirm for sale right now sits between RM850 and RM980 psf, and the cheapest live listing found was RM700,000 for a 1,250 sqft unit. A general portal guide quotes studios from RM600,000, but we could not find an active listing at that figure. I would treat the RM600,000 number as a historical marker rather than a price you can walk in and pay — until a studio actually appears on a portal at that level, the honest floor is RM700,000.

Nine Years Old, and Why That Helps

Completed in 2017, City Residence has had the better part of a decade for its defects, its management and its resale values to show themselves. That is a quieter advantage than a glossy new launch, but it is a real one: you can see the building's condition, ask how the commercial floors have been tenanted, and look at what units have actually changed hands for rather than what a developer hoped they would. For a buyer who dislikes construction risk, settled stock at RM850–980 psf in this corridor is a rational place to be.

Shops Downstairs: The Trade-Off in Plain Terms

City Residence is a mixed residential-commercial development, and the lower floors carry retail and F&B. Day to day that means coffee, food and errands without getting in the car — genuinely useful for an own-stay buyer. The flip side is more foot traffic and more activity at ground level than a purely residential tower, and some buyers simply do not want that under their home. Neither view is wrong; you just need to know which camp you are in before you view a unit, because the mixed-use character is baked in and will not change.

Where It Sits in Tanjung Tokong

Sekolah Kebangsaan Tanjung Tokong is 0.8km away and Tenby International School Penang 3km, with Straits Quay 1.5km for the marina-and-retail side of life. Gleneagles Penang is 4.8km and Adventist Hospital Penang 5km. This is Tanjung Tokong proper rather than the Seri Tanjung Pinang seafront, which is part of why the psf sits where it does. My area guide for Tanjung Tokong walks through how the corridor's older freehold stock and the newer launches price against each other.

Who Buys Here, and Who Walks On to The Landmark

For a foreigner, the RM1,000,000 island floor and the 3% levy do the filtering: the larger confirmed 3-bed units clear the line, while a unit near the RM700,000 entry — and certainly any studio — would not, so a foreign buyer is effectively shopping the upper-middle of the size range. I have broken down what a foreigner actually pays at closing separately, and you can run your intended hold through the RPGT calculator — a foreigner's exit is taxed at 30% inside the first five years and 10% thereafter.

City Residence makes most sense for three people: the buyer who wants the cheapest workable way into a freehold Tanjung Tokong address, the buyer specifically hunting the large-format end up to 5,600 sqft, and the own-stay buyer who values having retail downstairs. It makes least sense for someone who wants a purely residential building — there are standard condominium towers nearby that deliver that — and buyers cross-shopping the corridor's entry level will usually also look at The Landmark (from RM750,000) before deciding. Listings and the current unit schedule are on the City Residence project page.

Sources: Project prices, PSF, sizes, unit counts, tenure, land title, developer and completion year from our tracked dataset, compiled from developer price lists, official project sites and public listings. Sub-sale asking verified from live portal listings using the median-anchored method, with bait listings and relisted units excluded. RPGT rates and the s.21B retention per the Real Property Gains Tax Act (LHDN). Stamp duty per the Stamp Act (LHDN) — a flat 8% for foreign buyers, tiered 1–4% for citizens. The foreign-buyer minimum purchase price, 3% island / 2% mainland state levy and state consent requirement per Penang state policy and s.433B of the National Land Code. Figures move with the market — confirm current details with the developer or your solicitor before committing.