From Keys to Profits: The Lifecycle of a LITE House

May 13, 2025

Dear Urby investors,

There is an ongoing flurry of activities in our app surrounding properties of a particular flavour. Keep a look out for properties tagged with our “FastTrack” stickers within the Urby app. These are UrbanWave’s LITE houses.

Recently, we informed you through various channels about Ketupat House’s ongoing home sale. Today, we are dropping a Pre-Order sale for yet another LITE house: Gable House.

Tip: Pre-Order prices are the BEST prices!

In this article, we will walk you through in greater detail the lifecycle of LITE properties and the standard protocol that we are adopting for the acquisition and eventual sale of a property.

Urby's FastTrack Property Tag

UrbanWave LITE vs Co-Owned

Now, you might be wondering what LITE properties are, and how they differ from other properties listed on Urby’s platform.

A LITE property — such as Ketupat or Gable House — provides a streamlined investment path that is optimised for speed, simplicity, and smart returns. LITE properties are ideal for those who value time and efficiency.

With UrbanWave handling everything from renovation to resale, Urby investors can enjoy a hands-off experience and see returns within a short investment horizon — often under a year.

Table 1: LITE versus Co-Owned Properties

For a concrete example, consider Ketupat House’s development timeline: UrbanWave received house keys to Ketupat in November 2024 and confirmed a buyer in less than five months.

Ketupat House's timeline in progress

As at this writing, we expect that Ketupat House’s Profit Share Contract (PSC) will be redeemed at RM 11.17.

What this means for investors who purchased and currently hold Ketupat House PSCs, is that they could stand to receive a profit that ranges from 2.42% to 26.72%, depending on their PSCs’ average purchase price.

LITE Property's Acquisition Phase

Property acquisition is a non-trivial process, driven by any of these factors:

• State Authority Consent

• Land title (individual versus strata)

• Land tenure (freehold versus leasehold)

• Primary market or subsale property

• Cash sale versus mortgage requirement

Complexities could arise from any of the above-mentioned factors, but due to UrbanWave’s nature of business, we can scope it down to landed freehold subsale property acquisitions without mortgage requirement.

Generally speaking, LITE properties are purchased with cash although there may be instances where a housing loan could be used.

The primary factor we pay attention to is the consent needed from the State Authority, which on its own is complex because every state has its own legal framework surrounding land matters and land title restrictions.

There are instances where the land title transfer could sometimes take up to a year to complete due to the State Authority’s involvement.

If the acquisition stages that we outline here appear over-generalised, it is because of the variety of caveats involved and not our intention to be vague.

Stage 1: Letter of Offer

This is the stage that UrbanWave formally initiates the acquisition process. A letter of offer or a booking form is issued and signed. The booking fee is paid. The vendor typically has up to one month to accept UrbanWave’s offer to purchase.

This is the earliest stage for a LITE property to be listed on Urby, as a Pre-Order. You can think of a Pre-Order as a reservation of shares in the event that the property acquisition goes through and its PSCs are formally listed on Urby.

Pre-Order can occur at any stage before the necessary ownership documents have been acquired.

Stage 2: SPA Signed

With the letter of offer accepted by the vendor, the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) is then ready to be drawn up, signed and stamped.

Being a cash sale, this stage typically stretches up to a couple of weeks only, compared to a buyer who needs financing, which could drag for more than a month before the SPA is signed.

After the SPA is signed, some properties may require State Authority Consent before the sale can proceed further. In such cases, a Pre-Order could be issued since consent from the State Authority may take up to six months, or longer.

This stage wraps up when UrbanWave settles the payment and the balance of the purchase price is received by the vendor’s lawyers.

Stage 3: Vacant Possession

The delivery of Vacant Possession for subsale properties is approximately one week from the time the balance purchase price is settled.

With house keys in their hands, UrbanWave assumes full ownership and control of the property from here on. The proof of ownership is usually received soon after.

The upcycling work is now free to begin. 

Depending on the extent of the renovation works needed, a permit from the city council may be required before the renovation begins in earnest.

Meanwhile, UrbanWave is free to issue PSCs for listing on Urby. Any Pre-Order made by Urby’s users will be fulfilled and converted into PSCs.

LITE Property's Sale Phase

Stage 4: Find a Buyer

Now that the house is all fixed up, the marketing work begins to find a new home owner for the property.

This is the fun stage! We will definitely want to show off the house.

So, keep a lookout for events from us and/or UrbanWave if you are interested in visiting the newly renovated property.

Stage 5: Buyer Found

This event is signified by a serious prospective buyer offering to purchase the property, either verbally or by writing. The sale process is about ready to kick off.

There are a couple of scenarios to consider, in determining when the sale process should formally kick off:

Table 2: LITE Sale Kick-Off

We will continuously be communicating with you through every stage of the lifecycle, starting from this point on.

There are a few things to take note of, at this stage:

• Urby’s listing of the property’s PSCs in the primary market (the “New Drop” section in the app) will be halted for all users.

• While no new PSCs can be issued, trading on the secondary market (the “Market” section in the app) will still be available.

• At any time before the SPA is signed, there is a risk of the deal falling through if the buyer decides to back out of the sale process. Should this happen, Urby will re-list the property back to the primary market.

You may have noticed that in the case of Ketupat House, we formally kicked off the sale process and publicly notified you when its buyer signed the SPA. This is not an error – we recently updated our protocol only after Ketupat House’s buyer had signed the booking form.

Stage 6: Buyer Signs SPA

We are almost there! With the SPA executed, lawyers will initiate the application to transfer the land title to the buyer.

The following actions are to be taken:

• Submit the Memorandum of Transfer (MOT)

• Calculate the estimated redemption amount per PSC

• Halt the trading of property in Urby’s secondary market

• Announcement of the expected timeline of PSC redemption and proceeds transfer

As mentioned earlier in LITE Property's Acquisition Phase, some properties having land title restrictions may require State Authority Consent before the sale transaction can proceed further.

For these properties, UrbanWave will proceed with the above actions when the State Authority grants UrbanWave the consent to sell.

At this stage, the property transaction can still fall through if the State Authority rejects the title transfer request, or if the buyer breaches the terms of the SPA. Should this happen, Urby will re-list the property back to its primary market.

Stage 7: Property Transfer Period

With the Memorandum of Transfer submitted, all we can do now is wait. The time needed by the land office to process the title transfer varies: it can be as soon as one month or as late as three months.

Stage 8: PSC Redemption and Property Delisting

The property’s transaction is complete when the sale proceeds are received. Urby will formally delist the property from its platform.

The finalised redemption amount will be tabulated and the PSCs are redeemed with funds transferred to each PSC holder’s account balance.

From this point on, Urby will formally delist the property from its platform and the property’s PSCs will be removed from users’ portfolios.

Looking Ahead

In a future blog post, we will take a closer look at the lifecycle of UrbanWave’s Co-Owned properties, and we will see how it differs from LITE properties.

While Ketupat House can no longer be purchased from Urby’s primary and secondary markets, our investors can lock in the best price for Gable House by securing a spot through our latest Pre-Order today.

To avoid missing out on good investment opportunities, you may choose from the following options:

• Sign up to our WhatsApp concierge service

• Stay on our mailing list – if you had opted out and now wish to get back on the mailing list, reach out to us by WhatsApp

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If you are new to Urby, download the app today and join our movement!