Fully-furnished luxury apartment with its own pontoon mooring, sailing boat, golf membership and car for sale.



The apartment Is located in Johor state, southern Malaysia, just 40 minutes by ferry from Singapore, in a golf and marina resort. The apartment “complex” is a separate freehold development within the resort, each apartment having a “freehold strata title”. There are 48 apartments made up of 6 blocks of 4 two-story buildings, spread over about 4 acres, each building containing two apartments. Each apartment has its own pontoon mooring (mine is about 50m from the apartment, and I can see my boat from the windows, through the palm trees – see photo). Each block of 4 buildings (i.e. 8 apartments) shares its own swimming pool. The upstairs apartments have two bedrooms, but mine is a downstairs apartment, and has 3 double bedrooms with parquay flooring, two bathrooms (one en-suite), large open plan living and dining area with marble flooring, and a decent-sized kitchen. The total floor area of the apartment, including large outside terrace, is 2,350 sq ft. My neighbours are very respectable Singaporeans or Malaysians - the upstairs apartment is owned by a prominent heart surgeon from Kuala Lumpur who, to my knowledge, has visited his apartment only on about 5 weekends in the past 3 years. The other immediate neighbours are all from Singapore, mostly middle-aged or elderly, and they use their apartments as holiday homes. All of the apartments were built in 1996 or 1997.

The apartment has cable TV, Broadband and Telephone. The bedrooms and living space have new energy-efficient aircons (all fitted new in 2009). The annual service charge for the apartment (which includes property taxes and building insurance) is approximately RM11,000 (that’s about £Stg2,000 – payable in 4 quarterly installments). This annual management fee covers grounds and pool and pontoon maintenance and security. It also includes external maintenance and repairs to the apartments. There is one covered car parking space for the apartment. Utilities (electricity, gas, water) are extremely cheap. The apartment is fully-furnished, with a super king-sized bed in the master bedroom which also has a dressing area with plenty of storage and a dressing table. One of the other bedrooms has a queen-sized bed, and the third has two singles (I use this room as an office). All bedrooms have built-in wardrobes and drawers. There is old, but comfortable, furniture in the living and dining areas, a newish flat-screen Samsung 32 inch TV and a DVD player and also a newish LG hi-fi system. The kitchen has a 4 burner hob (no oven), fridge and microwave. All pots, pans, plates, cutlery, is included.

The development is about 4 miles up a pristine mangrove river, with no other developments or industry of any kind. The only disturbance you have when sailing are very occasional fishing boats, and the noise of the monkeys and birds. You can sail across to Singapore in a couple of hours.

TO VIEW THE RESORT ON GOOGLE EARTH GO TO COORDINATES 1 DEGREE
24.43 MINUTES NORTH, 104 DEGREES 09.50 MINUTES EAST

The Boat: is a Frances 26, a very solid excellent quality fractional rig sloop built by Victoria Marine in the UK in 1987. She is in exceptionally good condition for her year, and is ideal for day or weekend sailing in the river or across to Singapore, or for longer trips to the pristine islands on the east coast of Malaysia, about 100 miles away (including Tioman Island). Further up on the west coast are Penang and Langkawi (about 400 miles), and a bit further is Phuket, just over the Thai border. The running rigging and sails were replaced in 2003, a new cruising chute was added in 2008 and the engine was completely overhauled by Yanmar in Singapore in 2008. Instrumentation includes Raytheon ST60 wind / log / depth instruments, Raymarine plotter, Icom VHF, Raymarine ST2000 tiller-pilot (new 2007), CD / radio.

The Golf and Club Membership: The Sebana Resort has an 18 hole golf course, a 3 or 4 minute drive from the apartment. Whilst not in perfect condition at the moment, it is currently having a lot of improvements made to it, and there are really lovely views from almost every tee. There is a golf club-house (also under renovation), where you can buy meals and drinks. With the membership, unlimited golf is free, apart from the cost of hiring a buggy (I think it’s about 5 pounds for 18 holes).

There is also a massive main Club House near the marina with a restaurant (where you get a 20% discount), a bar and a Gym (not great but OK). There is a 200 berth marina where you will also get a discount (50% I think, although since you will have your own pontoon, you don’t need it). The monthly dues for the Club membership are RM130 per month (that’s about 25 UK pounds).

The Car: is a locally assembled Hyundai Getz, a small efficient hatchback, ideal for 2 people. The colour is red, it is automatic, and it has done about 25,000kms. It was new in January 2008 (although I think it was built late in 2007), and it is still in excellent condition.

Malaysia: is a great place to live, nice people and excellent food. The beaches on the east coast are superb, and Malacca, Penang and Langkawi on the west coast are wonderful – I suggest you buy a tourist book and find out more if necessary.

As far as living here is concerned, I simply come on a tourist visa (90 days), which gets renewed every time I make a shopping trip to Singapore – since I go at least every 2 or 3 weeks, there has never been a problem with the visa expiring.

An alternative is the “Malaysia My Second Home” (“MM2H”) scheme, run by the Malaysia Government, where people above a certain age, with demonstrable (modest) wealth can apply for a 10 year visa. This has other benefits as well, such as being permitted to import a car tax-free.

Getting to the resort really requires a car – there used to be ferries running from Singapore directly into the resort, and these are supposed to resume service soon. Meanwhile, the nearest scheduled ferry service to Singapore, which runs 3 trips per day (4 on weekends and holidays) is a 25 minute drive from the apartment. Singapore is great for shopping, or you can drive to Johor Bahru, a big Malaysian city just north of Singapore; it will take you about 90 minutes to reach a wide range of malls and big supermarkets (including Tesco and Carrefour). This journey will be considerably reduced, perhaps halved, when the new highway is completed (scheduled for Spring 2011). You can drive to Singapore which currently takes just over 2 hours, but again this will be much reduced upon the completion of the new highway.

The Price: The all-inclusive price is £Stg170,000. You will be required to pay your own legal and property transfer fee (RM10,000 - about £Stg2,000 pounds for the latter).

Contact: For more details please contact Phil Rowcliffe by email at philrowc@aol.com, or by phone on 01892 853754 or 07763 166323.

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