The first one is pronounced ‘REDING’ as in past tense of read. Southampton and Newcastle are more famous of course as we see them in action every week in the Premier League. What do these three have in common? All three are famous UK universities which has opened their branch campus here in Iskandar. They are part of the Educity blueprint which seeks to transform Iskandar into an education hub for overseas students. What does it hold for the property sector in Iskandar you may ask. These are just students, they can’t be buying properties, or can they?
Actually, I do agree, if the parents are super rich, they may prefer their children to be enrolled in prestigious universities in the home country. Nevertheless, these super rich parents are nowhere as many as those parents who are quite rich but may not want to spend too much. Sending their kids to a good UK university to a much cheaper place, not to mention nearer may just be more appealing. Consider this. Typically, one year of tuition fees and living expenses in UK may be RM100,000 conservatively. However, doing a degree here in Iskandar and graduating with one may set you back just over RM100,000. Note, the Degree certificate is identical to the one in UK and the medium of instruction is English with majority of the lecturers expats because otherwise it would be tough for them to maintain a similar programme and standard as that of its origin country.
When these universities reaches a typical capacity of say 3,000 students, the total housing needed per university may reach 600 units of apartment / condos easily. Ratio of 5 students to one apartment / condo. What about the teaching staffs? What about the admin staffs? What about the supporting industries such as food? Services? Now, do you see a good demand for these units? However, if you are thinking of buying a RM1,000,000 condo today to cash in on that idea, think again. For those you can only target the senior management staffs of the university. Personally, I would just buy an apartment, quite close to Educity and make it super comfortable, fully furnished with broadband and even Astro etc. I think the demand is there. We shall see if my plan works in near future.
Oh yeah, I did not yet include the following institutions: Marlborough College, Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), Netherlands’ Maritime Institute of Technology and Raffles University.
written on 4 June 2014
Next suggested article: Buying Iskandar? Points to note about Chinese (China) developers thus far
