Testing water with 9,000 units? No Malaysian developers can do that, yet.

In Malaysia, developers ‘test water’ by getting buyers to pre-register their interest. Some more adventurous ones build a nice renovated unit on the site to entice buyers. However, typically, the launch to ‘test water’ would consist of jus the first tower or first block of 200 units? Imagine what happened in Iskandar when Country Garden Holdings did their ‘water testing’? Well, they launched everything they have, ONLY 9,000 units. As at today, it has been rumoured that 70% of the 9,000 units have been sold.

The REHDA Johor deputy chairman, Mr. Wong Kuen Kong has this to say about Chinese developers. They add excitement to the Johor Property Market. Besides that, these developers would bring economic benefits not only to Johor but also the country. In fact, out of the few Chinese developers which had bought land in Iskandar, one of them would be building even more units than Country Garden! Maybe even 30,000 units. He was referring to the Tanjung Puteri R&F project by Guangzhou R&F properties. One main reason why these developers have been so aggressive is because they have a buyer base from China. Many of these investors may be buying overseas for the first time in their lives and a familiar developer would ease their worry tremendously.

Personally, I think besides the Chinese buyers from China, as long as all the catalyst projects planned are implemented accordingly, the market would also be attractive to Singaporean buyers. One main reason was because even Temasek is taking a pro-active approach and has their hands in some of the developments in Iskandar. This is complemented by the fact the prices in Singapore is becoming so expensive that many of the middle income workers, whether SIngaporean or PRs in Singapore finds it so tough to buy one. The only issue though would be the long queue at the checkpoints. I think this few hours queue is worth at least RM200,000.  In other words, if the price difference is RM200,000 or below, I would still prefer to buy HDB flats instead of buying in JB. However, if the price difference is RM500,000, that changes everything. Alternatively, if the HSR and RTS comes to fruition, then it is a high possibility that the demand may increase suddenly.

Until today, I still have no properties in Iskandar. The reason is pretty clear, I do not have any more funds. Haha. Ok, once I have, will drive down to take a look. Feel the area and feel the potential personally. For now, I just ‘write’ and see.

written on 30 May 2014

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