PETALING JAYA: Johor experiences the strongest property demand by foreigners and momentum is expected to continue, driven by increased interest from Singaporean buyers, according to DataSense real estate intelligence head Dr Lee Nai Jia.
Based on its Property Market Outlook Report 2024, Iskandar Puteri in Johor witnessed the highest percentage of foreign demand, mainly from Singaporeans and its permanent residents (PR).
He pointed out that the announcement of the Special Economic Zone and the progressive completion of the Johor Bahru–Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link were factors which boosted demand from Singaporeans.
He noted that the Singaporean property prices is experiencing a historic high, which was also driving property demand in Johor. In addition, he noted that most of the visitors were looking at properties that were priced below RM1 million.
“We are seeing that (Singaporeans) are not looking at high-end homes priced above RM1 million ... which ties in well with them (buying property in) Malaysia, attracted by the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme.
“In terms of the MM2H impact, we suspect that potential buyers are still analysing and taking their time before decision-making. We observe that Malaysian citizens (living in Singapore) are going back and looking at properties,” Lee said in PropertyGuru’s property market outlook 2024 webinar and panel discussion yesterday.
Lee added that the first group that were interested in buying property in Johor were Singapore-based Malaysians, who commute between both countries almost daily, due to high rental prices in Singapore.
While, the second group are potential buyers from Singapore who are encouraged by the government’s announcements in regards to economic developments, which have increased interest and demand.
“A lot of them already have homes in Malaysia and are in the midst of considering about expansion. We see that people are attracted to projects such as the R&F Princess Cove @ Tanjung Puteri, which is doing well.
“In some of the projects, we see that price increases have occurred. In terms of price appreciation levels from here onwards, it won’t go up very far ahead because a lot of the capital appreciation has been already capitalised in the prices. Hence, it will probably not see too much increase,” he opined.
Touching on the spillover effect, Knight Frank Malaysia executive director Amy Wong pointed out that connectivity was an important factor to consider.
“We are seeing it come in with the RTS because the existing Causeway and the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link is already at maximum capacity. However, with the RTS connectivity ... it is an actual spillover.
“(In terms of the Singaporean) residential price increase, it is also a spillover as the (Housing and Development Board) HDB rents are already at an all time high, coupled with the fact that the office sector in Singapore is very expensive and occupancy is also at a high,” said Wong, pointing out that Singaporean offices may not be able to expand due to limited space.
She noted that there was a hybrid work environment in Singapore, which may have prompted more employers to only require its staff to be present in its offices only a few times per week.
“That encourages people to actually consider living in Johor because they only need to make that trip only a few times a month,” she said.
