Penang Island sets a RM1,000,000 floor for foreign buyers, and almost every guide explains the rule without ever applying it. So here is the applied version for the north — Tanjung Tokong, Tanjung Bungah, Gurney, Pulau Tikus, Batu Ferringhi and George Town — using current prices from our own tracked records.
The headline finding: only four of the nine live northern new launches clear RM1,000,000 at entry. The rest of your shortlist has to come from the subsale market, which is where the interesting choices are anyway.
Key takeaways:
- The floor is RM1,000,000 per unit on the island, RM600,000 on the mainland — a test on the individual unit's price, not the project's headline "from" figure.
- Four of nine live northern new launches qualify at entry: Jesselton Courtyard, W Residence Gurney Bay, Waterstone, Lumina Residence.
- More than twenty completed northern buildings have stock above RM1,000,000 — that is the real breadth of choice.
- At the threshold, PSF across eligible stock runs from about RM450 to RM1,086 — so RM1 million buys either a smaller newer unit or a much larger older one, and you must choose deliberately.
- A prestige address does not confer eligibility. The Meg, on E&O's Andaman Island, tops out near RM780,000 and is closed to foreign buyers.
The Rule, Stated Precisely
Penang Island's minimum for foreign purchasers of strata property is RM1,000,000. The mainland floor is RM600,000.
The detail that trips people up: the test is on the price of the unit you are buying. Not the project's average, not its advertised entry price. A development marketed "from RM691,000" is not partially open to you — it is closed unless a specific larger layout in that building crosses RM1,000,000. Conversely, a building whose entry sits below the floor may still have penthouses well above it that you can buy.
Then cost it properly, because the threshold is only the beginning:
| Item | Foreign buyer |
|---|---|
| State levy (Penang Island) | 3% of purchase price |
| Stamp duty | Flat 8% (citizens pay a tiered 1–4%) |
| State consent | Allow 3–4 months |
On a RM1,000,000 purchase, the levy and stamp duty alone come to RM110,000 before legal fees. The full arithmetic is in the true-cost guide, and it is worth reading before you shortlist rather than after.
New Launches: Four Qualify, Five Do Not
This is the part no listing page will tell you, so here is the whole live northern pipeline against the floor.
| Project | From | PSF | Completes | Eligible at entry? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jesselton Courtyard | RM2,870,000 | RM1,050 | 2028 | Yes |
| W Residence Gurney Bay | RM2,370,000 | — | 2028 | Yes |
| Waterstone | RM1,287,000 | — | 2028 | Yes |
| Lumina Residence | RM1,030,000 | RM850 | 2027 | Yes |
| Crown Penang | RM704,000 | RM955 | 2029 | No |
| Eight & Eight | RM691,000 | RM700 | 2029 | No |
| Noordinz Suites | RM682,870 | RM1,811 | 2027 | No |
| G'Vinton | RM596,000 | RM1,500 | 2028 | No |
| Scott @ Logan | RM435,900 | RM1,290 | 2028 | No |
Lumina Residence is the one to understand properly. At RM1,030,000 it clears the floor by RM30,000 — which means it qualifies today, on today's price list, and a repricing or a promotional discount could put entry units back under the line. If you are working at the threshold, get the specific unit's price confirmed in writing before you build a plan around it.
For the five that do not qualify at entry, ask the developer directly whether any larger layout crosses RM1,000,000. Sometimes one does. More often, at these price points, none does — and Crown, Eight & Eight and G'Vinton are best understood as Malaysian and PR purchases.
The Subsale Market Is Where the Choice Is
Four new launches is a thin shortlist. The completed market is not: northern Penang has more than twenty buildings with stock asking above the floor, and because these are finished you can stand in the unit before committing.
Start with the two the threshold buyer should look at first.
Quayside, Tanjung Tokong
Andaman @ Quayside asks from about RM1,280,000 at RM1,086 psf, across 1,127 to 5,000 sq ft, in a 1,100-unit freehold development completed in 2018. It is the most straightforward answer to "what does a foreign buyer get in the north" — a modern seafront address, comfortably clear of the threshold, on an established estate with a working management track record and a deep enough resale market that pricing is discoverable rather than guesswork. Our full review covers which stacks justify their asks.
Straits Quay Suites @ Waterside sits nearby asking RM638,000 to RM1,700,000 at about RM734 psf. Note the range: only the upper end clears RM1,000,000, so this is a building where eligibility is unit-by-unit, and it carries a commercial title — commercial tariffs, tighter loan margin — which you should price in.
Tanjung Tokong above RM1 million
| Building | Asking from | PSF | Sizes | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fettes Residence | RM1,139,000 | RM542 | 2,000–2,467 sq ft | 2011 |
| Andaman @ Quayside | RM1,280,000 | RM1,086 | 1,127–5,000 sq ft | 2018 |
| Ariza Seafront Terraces | RM2,700,000 | RM714 | 3,488–3,781 sq ft | 2019 |
| The Penthouse | RM3,460,000 | RM692 | 5,000–5,050 sq ft | 2017 |
Put Fettes Residence and Andaman @ Quayside side by side and you have the entire trade-off of this price band in two lines. About RM1.14M at Fettes buys roughly twice the floor area of about RM1.28M at Quayside, in a building seven years older and a short walk further from the water. Neither is the right answer in general. One is right for you.
Wider northern stock above the floor
| Building | Area | Asking from | PSF | Sizes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferringhi Residence 2 | Batu Ferringhi | RM1,064,800 | RM505 | 1,208–1,565 sq ft |
| Mira Residence | Tanjung Bungah | RM1,070,000 | RM734 | 1,334–2,203 sq ft |
| Horizon Tower | Tanjung Bungah | RM1,100,000 | RM480 | 2,300–2,400 sq ft |
| The Marin Ferringhi | Batu Ferringhi | RM1,158,000 | RM649 | 1,750–1,850 sq ft |
| Codrington Residence | Pulau Tikus | RM1,400,000 | RM1,058 | 1,288–1,612 sq ft |
| Moonlight Bay | Batu Ferringhi | RM1,490,000 | RM710 | 2,100–4,000 sq ft |
| Alila 2 | Tanjung Bungah | RM1,680,000 | RM863 | 1,900–3,235 sq ft |
| Moulmein Rise | Pulau Tikus | RM2,180,000 | RM1,178 | 1,787–2,228 sq ft |
| Infinity Beachfront | Tanjung Bungah | RM2,700,000 | RM681 | 3,693–7,500 sq ft |
All quoted on an asking basis and checked 23 August 2026.
The Spread Is the Real Story: RM450 to RM1,086 a Foot
Look down those tables and one number moves far more than any other. Eligible northern stock runs from about RM450 psf at the value end to RM1,086 psf at Quayside — well over double, inside the same qualifying price band.
That is because RM1 million is a price floor, not a quality floor, and at the threshold it forces a genuine choice:
- Smaller and newer. Andaman @ Quayside at RM1,086 psf, or Codrington Residence at RM1,058 psf — recent buildings, current specification, tighter floor areas.
- Larger and older. Horizon Tower at RM480 psf across 2,300–2,400 sq ft, or Ferringhi Residence 2 at RM505 psf — materially more space for the same money, in buildings that have been standing longer.
Most foreign buyers I meet arrive assuming RM1 million is a modest budget in Penang because it is modest in Singapore or Hong Kong. In the north it is not modest at all — it is the entry to a market where you can buy 2,400 sq ft. The mistake is not budget, it is defaulting to the newest thing on the list without asking what the same money buys three years older.
The Meg: an Andaman Island Address a Foreigner Cannot Buy
This one deserves its own section, because it is the cleanest illustration of how the rule actually behaves.
The Meg sits on Andaman Island off Gurney Drive, developed by E&O — as prestigious a combination of address and developer as Penang offers. It is freehold. It completed in 2026.
And a foreign buyer cannot buy it. Its published range runs about RM600,000 to RM780,000 across 567 to 897 sq ft units, so no unit reaches RM1,000,000. The whole building is a Malaysian and PR purchase.
The lesson generalises. The threshold tests the price of the unit, and unit size is what usually decides that. Compact units in prestigious buildings routinely fall below the floor; large units in unglamorous buildings routinely clear it. If you shortlist by reputation you will waste months on stock you cannot legally buy — and miss buildings that qualify comfortably because their name is unfamiliar. Our review of The Meg covers what it is for the buyers who can purchase it.
Zac’s Take
Zac Ong
The single most useful thing I do for buyers at this threshold is tell them what they cannot buy, early. It sounds negative and it saves months. Once the ineligible stock is off the table, the real decision gets simple and quite personal: newer and smaller, or older and much larger. I have seen buyers pay RM1,086 a foot for a 2018 building when what they actually wanted — space, a sea view, a quiet floor — was available two hundred metres away at half the rate. Tell me how you will use it and how long you will hold, and I will tell you which side of that line you belong on.
Before You Commit
- Confirm the specific unit's price in writing if you are within RM100,000 of the threshold. Lumina Residence clears by RM30,000; that is not a margin to assume.
- Brief your lawyer on state consent at the outset. Three to four months is normal, and landed property draws closer scrutiny than strata.
- Check the land title, not just the tenure. Freehold tells you about the land; the title class tells you about your tariffs and your loan margin. Straits Quay Suites is commercial; most of the residential stock above is not.
- Ask for the management accounts and sinking-fund balance in any completed building before offering.
- Model the exit. Foreigners pay RPGT at 30% on gains in years one to five, then 10% thereafter — a materially different curve from the citizen schedule.
Read buying property in Penang as a foreigner for the full process, the Tanjung Tokong area guide for the corridor, and the branded residences guide if your budget runs well past the threshold. If you want the current unit-level shortlist above RM1,000,000 — with the ineligible stock already stripped out — message me and I will send it.
Sources: Foreign-buyer minimums (RM1,000,000 island, RM600,000 mainland), the 3% Penang Island state levy, the flat 8% foreign stamp duty rate against the tiered 1–4% citizen schedule, and 3–4 month state consent timing per Penang state authority guidelines. RPGT rates per Schedule 5 of the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976. All project prices, PSF, unit sizes, tenure, land title and completion years from our own tracked records, checked 23 August 2026; subsale figures are asking prices and labelled as such, new-launch figures are developer prices. The Meg's price range and unit sizes confirmed by Zac Ong (REN 64593) from the developer price list.