Dear friends.... Finally i visited visited Johor and had a look at some of the the places, here are my views...
The people generally seem to be friendly.... but i have not interacted with a lot of people to come to a conclusion. There is no well establised public transport so a car becomes a must and it is very difficult for any elderly to communicate freely by themselves (since they may be unable to drive). The cabs too are not very easily available at all the places... but i am not sure if there is a call a cab service which one could use...
Horizon Hills seemed to be good but very much high priced and very far away.
-Good
It seems to have a good management which would be managing the property well. The person i met took me around the places and explained me the various precints very well but after i waited for a 15-20 mins...
The new projects are being built over wider area of land and seem to be better than the Gateway in terms of distribution of houses over the area of land
Swimming pool and club house and a restaurant
A potential for the residential communities to interact and have a good social living way of life.
-Bad
Security, i dont find HH to be much secure as the 1st level of security that is the main gate to the HH was wide open for anyone to freely come in and go out... no id checks and no verification. The only security is the individual precint security at entrance of individual Gateway /Golf e.t.c
Green/Environmental Factor, The HH is developed over vast area of GREEN land with beautiful plantations and really well grown trees... destruction of all this is a major loss to human kind and to mother earth ( sorry i am a bit green person)
High Price, The new developments are coming up at a higher price as compared to the early launches of gateway which was launched at around 300K RM +. Though the land was occupied by the companies at the same price, and the cost of construction has marginally increased.... the higher prices are not 100% justified....
Furthest, if i am right among all the projects HH is the furthest from singapore.. .( do correct me if you differ)
Nusa Idaman was just slihgtly less in price currently than HH, but is as distant as HH and relies on individual precints to have their own security and society formation in the long run....so it is vital that all the members agree on the way the society will be managed. Location is very close to HH but the price is much lower the HH
Leisure Farms A serene place to live, good security as they collect a ID at the time of main entrance.Very expensive. Though it is closest to Singapore from second link in terms of distance ... atmo the way to go there directly from teh highway is not open so one has to take an alternative route whcih is slightly longer.... The Best option!!!
Ledang heights and Ledang East
The office was closed due to CNY and there was no one there to take me inside and i was not allowed to view the place. This may be closest ot singapore but priced very high as well....
1 thing i would like to highlight to every one is the cost of any unit in Johor/msia is much higher if one is buying on loan. For example a unit of 500K rm @ 6% loan for 30 years will cost the owner 1 mil Rm in real cost including the interests ... due to high rate of interest currently prevailent in msia. so one should factor this at the time of buying a unit.
Next time I am considering to have a look at some of the units at Bukit Indah as well due to proximity to necessity. May be at Nusa Dutta, if any one has a review of Nusa Dutta then please share it out here.... as i personally found the location nice....
About cost of living, from my visit at Giant my wife could comapre the prices of some of the basic items like milk and other grocery and share that the prices are a lot lower than in Singapore.. may be just 5 to max 10% of savings on grocery and such. Overall it is not much cheaper to live in Johor and come to singapore to work...
So atmo, if i had lots of free money available at my disposal i may have bought Leisure Farms but atmo i may just delay my plan to buy anything untill i have a better liquidity and the Euro/US crises settle in and the Debt markets improve and see if that has any impact on the prices in Johor which i am positive that they may correct southwards.
"Gong Xi Fa Cai"
my views of HH is different from you.
80% of the population is made up of foreigners and 50% made up of singaporeans. (no locals would want to commit 500k RM for HH)
lots of singapore cars parked at the entrance of the gate if you may noticed.
Wait till the coastal highway is up and running, i believed it can cut travelling distance between HH and singapore.
HH going to teso, jusco is pretty near.. (if you have a car).. can also go nusa bestari to have cheap hawker food if malls' food are not cheap.
there are alot of singaporeans renting place at HH and working in singapore. you might want to check that out..
apart from these, security wise, pretty tight... security guards are seen patrolling within the precinct .. i may say, pretty inconvenience for old folks whom cannot drive........
if want convenience, i will have to say ' stay in SG' and have your pocket dry :P