Comfort-Inspired Living Spaces

Raising the quality of life in a conducive environment, alongside social spaces and wellness cluster, these vacation homes are the hallmark of an enriched lifestyle where live and learn, work and play are perfectly balanced.

- Felicia Soon

The overall residential market in Johor has shown a slight improvement in terms of volume and value of property transactions. According to Knight Frank Malaysia Real Estate Highlights – 1H 2019, as of 2018, the volume of property transacted in the State of Johor grew positively for all sub-sectors whereby the residential, commercial and industrial segments improved by 8.0 per cent, 11.5 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively compared to the previous year (y-o-y). While the corresponding value of property transactions for the residential (1.5 per cent) and industrial (17.5 per cent) subsectors also improved, the commercial segment recorded a decline of 4.3 per cent in transacted value.

Knight Frank Malaysia also announced that there is a shift in focus in the 2020 Budget from house buyers to developers in addressing the residential property overhang. The Government’s move to lower the threshold from RM 1 million to RM 600,000 for foreigners is expected to reduce the overhang of condominiums and apartments totaling about RM 8.3 billion.

“Generally, Malaysia has a higher distribution of unsold, completed high rise residential properties above RM 600,000 at 53 per cent compared with those below RM 600,000 (47 per cent),” said Sarkunan Subramaniam, Managing Director of Knight Frank Malaysia.

Distribution of unsold completed condominiums and serviced apartments by price range.

Condominiums and apartments accounted for 43 per cent of the overhang. Bank Negara Malaysia and some property industry experts have warned about a housing glut in cities such as Johor Baru. Johor’s Housing, Communication and Multimedia Committee Chairman, Dzulkefly Ahmad said the state government was considering lowering the RM 1 million threshold for foreigners in a bid to clear 51,000 unsold units in the state. He had said houses priced from RM 600,000 accounted for 70 per cent of unsold properties in Johor.