The verdict
3.9/ 5The Lighthauz is Exsim's new Gelugor tower — 56 storeys, 671 units, freehold, on a 2-acre site.
- Price
- from RM890K
- Tenure
- Freehold
- Land title
- Commercial HDA
Zac’s own rating, not an average of user reviews. It reflects one licensed agent’s assessment of this project against others he tracks in Penang.
Every off-plan purchase is a trade: your money now for a building later. The Lighthauz asks for a longer trade than most — 60 months from APDL, so handover around late 2029 to early 2030 — and the right way to review it is to ask what those four years actually buy you. It is Exsim's 56-storey, 671-unit freehold tower in Gelugor, with clean layouts of 732 sqft (1-bedroom) and 1,001 sqft (2-bedroom), from about RM890,000.
Key takeaways:
- The wait is the deal: roughly four years from signing to keys. Whether that suits you decides everything else.
- From about RM890,000 at 732 sqft — over RM1,200 psf, the top of the current Gelugor band.
- Freehold on a commercial-HDA title — statutory HDA protections, but commercial loan margins and tariffs.
- Every unit has a balcony; car parks are an add-on, so price your true entry accordingly.
- Exsim's build reputation is the reason buyers accept the timeline.
What the Four Years Buy
Start with the case for the wait. You lock today's price on a tower that completes into The Light corridor's next cycle, from a developer whose construction discipline is the main reason people queue for its launches. Exsim's record is the collateral here: on a four-year timeline, who is building matters more than any render.
You also buy position. Gelugor sits on the bridge-to-city axis, ringed by USM and the corridor's newer stock, and by 2030 the neighbouring Light developments will have matured around it. A 56-storey tower with balconies on every unit, at the newest spec in the precinct, enters a market where most competing stock is older.
What the Four Years Cost
Now the other side of the trade, plainly. Your deposit is parked for four years earning nothing, while a completed Gelugor unit bought today would already be rented out. If rates move, if your plans move, if the corridor's rents soften — you carry that for the full wait. Off-plan risk is not exotic; it is simply time, and this project asks for more of it than most.
And you pay the corridor's top rate for the privilege: about RM890,000 over 732 sqft is north of RM1,200 psf, a level Gelugor's completed stock does not trade at today. The bet is that 2030's market justifies it. That is a reasonable bet — it is still a bet.
The Title, Told Straight
The Lighthauz is freehold, and it is a serviced apartment on a commercial title under the HDA. Those are three separate facts. Freehold means you hold it indefinitely. The HDA means the statutory sale agreement, defect liability period and licensed-developer protections apply. The commercial title means banks typically cap the loan margin lower than residential, and your utilities and assessment run at commercial rates.
None of that is disqualifying — much of the corridor's new stock shares the same structure — but it belongs in your maths from day one, not discovered at the loan-offer stage.
The Small Print That Moves the Price
Two spec details change your true entry cost. First, parking is an add-on, not included — on a one-bedroom aimed at owner-occupiers and tenants who drive, add the bay's price before comparing against projects that bundle one. Second, the layout split is rigid: 732 or 1,001 sqft, nothing larger. A family that will outgrow 1,001 sqft by 2030 should notice that now.
Who Should Sign, Who Should Skip
Sign if you have a five-to-ten-year horizon, no need for the money or the keys before 2030, and you are buying Exsim's delivery record as much as the address. The layouts suit a professional couple or a landlord targeting the USM-and-corridor tenant pool once the tower completes.
Skip if you need rent or a home within two years — Gelugor's completed stock, or a nearer-term project like MeriOne Residences, gets you into the same corridor without the four-year park. And if the commercial-title running costs unsettle you, that is a signal to compare against a residential-title alternative before committing — tell me your numbers and I will put both options on one page for you.
Sources: Layouts, unit count, storeys, tenure, title structure, balcony and parking specs from the developer's project materials (exsim.com.my) and Penang Property Talk. Completion timing per the developer's stated 60-months-from-APDL schedule. Price from the developer's current indicative list; PSF derived from that price and the published size. Confirm the live price list, the parking add-on cost and your loan margin in writing before committing.