Vilaris Courtyard Homes

Vilaris Courtyard Homes is a gated enclave of 56 freehold three-storey houses in The Sanctuary, Runnymede’s hillside estate at Batu Uban on Penang Island. The houses have stood complete since the CCC was issued on 4 April 2016, so a buyer inspects the real thing rather than a model.

Each house occupies a 24′ x 80′ lot and offers 3,939 or 3,952 sq ft across three floors, with four bedrooms, a maid’s room and a porch for four cars. Two intermediate designs are on record: Type A1a, which relies on the staircase, and Type A2a, which adds a private lift.

Quick answer: Vilaris Courtyard Homes is a freehold landed property development by Runnymede in Batu Uban, Penang. It offers 56 units, with 4+1 bedroom layouts, from 3,939 to 3,952 sq ft, already completed.

Development at a Glance

Everything below comes from the developer’s own material. These are the figures that are fixed at construction — renovation changes none of them, so they are worth checking before anything else.

• Developer — Runnymede
• Property type — Landed Property
• Tenure — Freehold
• Land title — Residential strata
• Land area — 5.3 acres
• Storeys — 3
• Total units — 56
• Car parking — Car porch for 4 cars at the lower level, below the living floor
• Security — a single gated entrance with a guardhouse (two guards), CCTV and intercom at the guardhouse, access passes, and hourly security checkpoints through the enclave
• Defect liability period — Ended for the remaining units (Summary, May 2024)
• Completion — Completed (CCC obtained)

A House Arranged Around Its Own Courtyard

The plan works like a townhouse stacked in three layers. The street-level layer takes the cars, a guest bedroom with its bathroom, the maid’s room, a store, a utility room and two service yards. Above it, the living floor holds the lounge, a long dining area, an island dry kitchen and a closed wet kitchen, with a powder room for visitors. The top layer belongs to the family: a master suite with a bathtub, a study corner and a balcony, two more bedrooms with bathrooms of their own, and a family hall at the landing.

The courtyard explains the name. Next to the staircase on the living floor sits a planted garden open to the sky, and a void above it rises past the bedroom floor. Daylight and breeze therefore reach the middle of a deep terraced house, which is normally its darkest part. The developer’s interior photos show the look it was designed for: timber lattice screens, Straits Chinese furniture and pale floors, a present-day reading of the Peranakan houses of old Penang.

There are two ways into each house. A garden stair climbs from the road to a front corridor on the living floor, so guests reach the main rooms without walking past the cars, while the household can come in at porch level and go up inside. Type A2a puts a lift shaft next to the stairs that stops on every floor, and it is the one to shortlist if someone at home finds stairs hard.

Scale is the last point. Fifty-six houses on 5.3 acres is a thin spread by island standards, and the enclave has a single gate watched from a guardhouse. Vilaris was the final phase of The Sanctuary master plan; Runnymede’s Triuni Residences condominium shares the same estate.

Unit Types

Both published designs are intermediate houses with the same rooms on the same 24′ x 80′ lot. A2a gives a strip beside the stairs to a lift shaft and ends up 13 sq ft larger. Every bedroom, the guest room included, has its own bathroom, and the maid’s room has one too. The back garden is drawn as ‘varies’, so its depth depends on the lot. The site plan also shows end and corner houses, but no plans for them appear in the developer material we hold.

Layout & Floor Plan

All 2 plans below are the developer’s own drawings.

• Type A1a is 3,939 sq ft, 4+1 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms — intermediate, 24′ x 80′ lot, staircase only, plus a powder room.
• Type A2a is 3,952 sq ft, 4+1 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms — intermediate, 24′ x 80′ lot, private lift to all three floors, plus a powder room.

Facilities

Gate and security

• Single gated entrance with a guardhouse (two guards)
• CCTV and intercom at the guardhouse
• Access pass control at the gate
• Hourly security checkpoints through the enclave

Landscape

• Landscaped walk with a winding footpath along the northern boundary
• Planted green belt behind the rows of houses

Security runs to a single gated entrance with a guardhouse (two guards), CCTV and intercom at the guardhouse, access passes, and hourly security checkpoints through the enclave.

Location & Connectivity

The Sanctuary occupies a hillside in Batu Uban, on the east side of Penang Island, midway between the island’s two bridges. Runnymede’s own sales gallery is close by on Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah in Gelugor, the main road running north towards Jelutong and George Town and south towards Bayan Lepas and the airport.

Vilaris has no distance table of its own, but Runnymede publishes one for The Sanctuary and the figures carry over closely: Universiti Sains Malaysia at roughly 2.4 km, Queensbay Mall at 2.8 km and Pantai Hospital Penang at 4.8 km. SK Sungai Nibong, SMJK Phor Tay and SJK(C) Keong Hoe all sit within roughly 2 km.

Schools

• SK Sungai Nibong — about 1.7 km
• SMJK Phor Tay — about 1.8 km
• SJK(C) Keong Hoe — about 1.9 km
• Universiti Sains Malaysia — about 2.4 km
• INTI International College Penang — about 4.3 km
• Fairview International School — about 5.7 km

Healthcare

• Pantai Hospital Penang — about 4.8 km
• Lam Wah Ee Hospital — about 7.4 km

Shopping & Leisure

• Queensbay Mall — about 2.8 km
• Sunshine Square — about 4.2 km
• Penang Golf Club — about 4.3 km
• Setia SPICE Arena — about 4.9 km

Getting Around

• Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah — main road north to George Town and south to Bayan Lepas
• Penang Bridge — marked just north of the estate on the developer’s map
• Second Penang Bridge and Penang International Airport — to the south

Developer Background

Vilaris Courtyard Homes was developed by B.U. Developments Sdn Bhd (353422-H), a company of the Runnymede Group, and is sold through Runnymede’s sales gallery in Gelugor. The group counts it among its completed Penang projects together with The Sanctuary Bungalows and Triuni Residences in the same estate.

Runnymede was set up in Penang in 1994 and borrows its name from the Runnymede Hotel, the heritage seafront building on Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah that the group is restoring with Ritz-Carlton. Its other finished work includes Prai Tropika in Seberang Perai, Kem Tun Razak at Bukit Gedung, the KWSP office tower in George Town and a retail centre in Kota Damansara. Projects in hand include The Fount in Batu Uban, Runnymede Bay in George Town, Ampang Valley in Kuala Lumpur and two developments in Western Australia.

Compare Other Batu Uban Options

Looking at more than one project? Browse every new launch in Gelugor, or compare Triuni Residences · Pinnacle Bukit Gambier · The Pier.

We also wrote up this project in more detail: Vilaris Courtyard Homes, Batu Uban: Freehold Courtyard Houses in The Sanctuary.

Want to know the price for Vilaris Courtyard Homes? PM us now — our consultant will contact you immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Vilaris Courtyard Homes freehold?
The tenure is freehold, on a Residential strata title.

What unit types are available at Vilaris Courtyard Homes?
2 layouts: Type A1a is 3,939 sq ft with 4+1 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms; Type A2a is 3,952 sq ft with 4+1 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.

How many units does Vilaris Courtyard Homes have?
56 on 5.3 acres.

How many car park bays come with a unit at Vilaris Courtyard Homes?
Car porch for 4 cars at the lower level, below the living floor.

Is Vilaris Courtyard Homes completed?
Yes. Its CCC was issued on 4 April 2016, so every house can be inspected and lived in now.

Does Vilaris Courtyard Homes have a lift?
Type A2a does: a private lift beside the staircase serves all three floors. Type A1a has the same rooms without the lift and is 13 sq ft smaller.

Is Vilaris Courtyard Homes gated and guarded?
Yes. The enclave has a single entrance with a guardhouse staffed by two guards, CCTV and an intercom at the gate, access passes for visitors and hourly security checkpoints inside.

Where is Vilaris Courtyard Homes?
Inside The Sanctuary at Batu Uban, Gelugor, on Penang Island between the two bridges. Triuni Residences is in the same gated estate, and USM and Queensbay Mall are each less than 3 km away.

Can I view a house at Vilaris before deciding?
Yes, on weekdays. The developer opens its mock-up house, Unit 15, and does not offer weekend viewings. Tell us a preferred day and our consultant will arrange it with Runnymede right away.