Property News

[xebay11]

I thought you should have known this better a long time ago. Surprised you changed opinion recently by wanting to stay in Johor and even buying a house there.

I mentioned several times in the past that when I asked some of my Malaysian colleagues and friends if they wanted to buy Iskandar properties (so much cheaper than those in SG), many balked at the idea. They wouldn't even think twice. There are several reasons they gave which I won't bother repeating here. This is a fact about what they told me and I didn't make the story up. Looks like it agrees with the experience with your neighbour.

I also did mention it's amusing for me to see Malaysians are coming in here to work, earning higher salaries and setting up their families here. Some even want to get their SG citizenship and buy yes, that "pigeon-hole" (as Sinkies themselves insult their own homes) HDB flats to live inside. But Singaporeans like you are moving out to stay in Johor. Some even contemplated pulling their children out of the education system here and putting them in Johor schools! (To me, international or not, it's still a school in Johor, standard is determined by the people there.) I can understand if it's SG-->US, Europe, Australia or Japan.... but to Johor??

This is not to imply Johor is lousy or SG is superior. Every city and country has its own beauty and attraction. Johor is no exception. But it takes a lot more than just "cheaper housing, bigger houses" to push people out of Singapore. There are other downsides in Johor that people have to consider.

This is a point which many speakers in property talks misled the audience. They kept painting a picture which shows many Singaporeans will naturally soon move over to Iskandar because they can't afford housing in SG. So you better buy one now also.

This is definitely not true. If you ask around and talk to your Singaporean friends and colleagues, or better still, talk to present or former Malaysians living in Singapore, the ground sentiments are very different from the half-truths those agents, speakers and developers of Iskandar projects are trying to portray.

Mpan12, I have never waiverd in my views, right from start I have always emphasized that yes, there are some plus points living in Johor but nothing that cannot be achieved by renting or just driving across. Those who bought keep on harping how good life can be by moving across are only trying to justify their purchases, actually no need to sink life savings in Johor, many cheaper alternatives to getting low cost living and enjoying good life.

Anyway I am a landed property addict that's why I went to look, I do not think a landed house is hard to clean, in fact I think if you buy a smaller cosy one with a large ground floor room, and leave the rest of the rooms empty, it should be easy to clean with nothing in the way. I saw one at Mount Austin area, double gated security and next to a very serene park, me and wife like it, but the house needs some work ie. money, as it was not that well maintained. Anyway there are lots of choices in Johor, no need to rush. If limits go to RM2 million, I will drop ownership idea completely.

 

[xebay11]

It is true that when you grow old, your kids leave home. The oversized house felt empty. Nowadays, every married kid want their own home, no one want to stay with the parents anymore. That is the very same reason why I bought another condo last month even though the condo is 10 minutes drive from my present house.

In Malaysia and just like many other countries, safety issues are a concern. It is just that Singapore is a very safe city and you are not used to the safety risks of outside world and extra sensitive to these concerns. For us, Malaysians, it is very normal. We take safety issues as a daily routine.
Maybe you should try renting for a while, see if you can accept it or not before plunging. But I don't think money is an issue to you. Rather it is the suitability of lifestyle that you are after.

In my neighbourhood, we have clean and modern eateries such as Secret Recipe, Old Town, Ding Tai Fung, Vietnam restaurants.
But after a while, we felt that we miss the old style laksa stalls, nasi lemak at the corner shops or even wet market along the roadside where piping hot pan mee is served on plastic tables. That's my lifestyle, I suppose. So different people, different takes.

Ha ha I am not looking for oversize (over priced) house lah, told the agent newer better he kept telling me newer units smaller, yes they tend to be smaller but better designed, the older houses with smaller windows tended to be stuffy and dark.

 

[potter]

Spent one day looking for property in Johor yesterday, went to Mount Austin, Adda Heights and Bandar Dato On areas.

The most interesting part about two owner occupied units, out of two, both the Malaysian owners said that they were selling because the children have grown up and the rooms were empty, they were moving to Singapore, as their children and spouse all got jobs there, me and wife exchanged looks and we were intending to move to Johor? Hmm maybe we better think again.

Also met my banking neighbor this morning, told him about my plans to move to Johor, I asked his opinion as his wife was Malaysian, he actually said that they did consider such a plan but he said that they dropped the idea in the end..... Due to safety issues, I have another colleague also former Malaysian, also would not ever go back due to safety issues.

Very very interesting, now puts me thinking again. Really must take time to decide, for no brainer decision, definitely just rent, no bank loan, no need deposit, no worries and costs much less in monthly payments than buying a RM1m property.

All the people I met in these two days definitely not peasant sinkie or Malaysian category, and all rather live in singapore.

these 3 places are not for 2.6m man.
i feel v safe in SC.

 

[xebay11]

these 3 places are not for 2.6m man.
i feel v safe in SC.

SC, Sentosa Cove or Senibong Cove?

 

[potter]

SC, Sentosa Cove or Senibong Cove?

i'm johor resident. :p

 

[tstar]

It is not advisable to sell own house and move to sg to live with married child. Parents cannot get along with son's wife. that is truth everywhere.

Maybe it is ok to live with daughter. But with children coming, the place will get too cramped. If her husband is not a nice person or faces pressure in work or in marriagw, it will give a lot of trouble. you may end up going back to jb and having nowhere to live.

When getting old, it is important to have one's own place to live in be it a modernised hdb or a humble johor house.

 

[Manhattan]

Hard rock cafe and resort coming to desaru in 2017. Life's good.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...vibe-to-malaysias-desaru-coast-300330099.html

 

[Tekkun]

It is not advisable to sell own house and move to sg to live with married child. Parents cannot get along with son's wife. that is truth everywhere.

Maybe it is ok to live with daughter. But with children coming, the place will get too cramped. If her husband is not a nice person or faces pressure in work or in marriagw, it will give a lot of trouble. you may end up going back to jb and having nowhere to live.

When getting old, it is important to have one's own place to live in be it a modernised hdb or a humble johor house.

Absolutely. If cannot get along with daughter in law, who really suffer? The son who got sandwiched in between.
Therefore better don't stay together and have a world of your own.

Feel like it, go visit grandsons once a while otherwise go on holidays on your own.

 

[sgcount]

A positive outlook on Medini that I have just read:

http://www.theedgeproperty.com.my/content/883527/medini-going-ahead-commercial-developments

Will it come true? Everything sounds nice but to be honest, I think there's a very long road ahead before anything big comes out of it, if it is possible at all.

 

[Tekkun]

A positive outlook on Medini that I have just read:

http://www.theedgeproperty.com.my/content/883527/medini-going-ahead-commercial-developments

Will it come true? Everything sounds nice but to be honest, I think there's a very long road ahead before anything big comes out of it, if it is possible at all.

Read it like this: They will build one tower and then see the take up rate before going for another and repeat. The whole cycle would take many years. The entire project is not going to be totally completed at one go. In another words, the construction activity would last for another 10 years.

 

[snowbird]

A positive outlook on Medini that I have just read:

http://www.theedgeproperty.com.my/content/883527/medini-going-ahead-commercial-developments

Will it come true? Everything sounds nice but to be honest, I think there's a very long road ahead before anything big comes out of it, if it is possible at all.

Do you believe what he said?
Its just another 100% salesman talk to me.

"We believe our offerings will be on a par with other CBDs in Asia such as Singapore and Hong Kong. We also hope to complement these cities in the future, especially given Medini Iskandar’s proximity to them.”

All the while, he was talking about the advantage of the proximity and connectivity to SG.
If this is really the advantage, then within SG itself, why are companies paying up to S$12.00psf for prime office space in Raffles Place instead of nearby, say, Paya Lebar which is near enough and well connected by roads and MRT where rental is almost half of Raffles Place?

He also talked about LEGOLAND attracting thousands of visitors daily and not "tens of thousands".
A major theme park is not considered successful and even losing money if only managed to bring in about a million visitors yearly.(Ocean Park HK : 7million, SG Universal Studio : 3.5 million).
Drop by LEGOLAND any weekday and you can see how bad the park is doing.
His management and marketing people need to do more work!

In order to develop a successful CDB within the Iskander, he needs to attract multi-national offices, banks and financial institutions etc and instead of more and more manufacturers and factories.
Both SG and HK had more than 200 local and foreign banks each, if only he can manage to attract a fraction of them to set up shop here.
Or convince the Federal govt to set up Johor Stock Exchange, like what Shenzhen did, then all the banking and other financial institutions will flock here in no time.

But then, he is talking about developing the place over the next 30 years.
The end results unfortunately we all may not be able to witness, however, the kind of development and outcome within the next 10 years will be a good indication of things to come in the next 2 decades.

However, for the pathetically hopefuls, it was a nice encouraging and lifting pep talk.

 

[tstar]

Talking about high tech, one should definitely go to shen zhen.

numerous china own high tech big brands employing numerous china people. while here you willl find contractors or divisions of the MNC without that many employees. btw the MNC always have the option to move out if they find a better place. just in the area of wireless comm and hard disk, the shift to china malaysia and thailand is still going on.

own brand or not, this is is essentially different.

 

[sgtsk]

In future, construction labour costs would be vastly reduced.

Construction Company 3D Prints an Entire Two-Story House On-Site in 45 Days

http://inhabitat.com/3d-printed-house-in-china-can-withstand-an-8-0-earthquake/

 

[Manhattan]

A positive outlook on Medini that I have just read:

http://www.theedgeproperty.com.my/content/883527/medini-going-ahead-commercial-developments

Will it come true? Everything sounds nice but to be honest, I think there's a very long road ahead before anything big comes out of it, if it is possible at all.

2045 is very far away, but we cannot deny that things in medini are moving, slowly but surely. Jan 17 sunway international school starts, Apr 17 coastal link highway completed, 2018 medini 9 completed, the list goes on. If it is still a ghost town in 5 years, I have nothing to say....we placed our bets with all the big boys.

 

[xebay11]

2045 is very far away, but we cannot deny that things in medini are moving, slowly but surely. Jan 17 sunway international school starts, Apr 17 coastal link highway completed, 2018 medini 9 completed, the list goes on. If it is still a ghost town in 5 years, I have nothing to say....we placed our bets with all the big boys.

The big boys took away all your chips lol, since when did small frys ever benefit by betting with big boys? just like punters at the casino. The big boys always win. What are you smoking by saying bet with the big boys?

 

[Tekkun]

The big boys took away all your chips lol, since when did small frys ever benefit by betting with big boys? just like punters at the casino. The big boys always win. What are you smoking by saying bet with the big boys?

He is saying if you want to buy, buy from the big boys in property development. At least they don't run away.
Buy from smaller developers, chances are high they run road.

 

[sgcount]

I don't think he meant the smaller developers will run away. So far there is no sign that will be the case.

"Placing bets on the big boys" likely means there are many plans in store for Medini and big names that will be set up there. So if those guys dare to take the lead (or rather, risks as some might say), then the assumption that "we just follow them" will be safe. They must know something.....

But looking at the broader picture, I now personally think a bit similarly to xebay11's point above.

What the big boys do or even if they win, it may not trickle down to the tiny players such as small time investors of Medini. For example, big developers like Sunway are only interested to make money by selling their properties. They can market them by saying all sorts of good things and publish glossy brochures. You buy, they earn your money. But whether you make money or not next time is not their concern.

I think the "eco-system" in a city is very complex. It's easy to argue the HSR, universities, several companies will be there, what could go wrong? Sure huat one. But property investors could still be left dry and will not benefit from all these amenities in place.

Ultimately, it's still how strong Johor's and Malaysian's economy is, the RM currency's strength, demand for jobs, how attractive the salaries are, education level, political stability, quality and expertise of workers that will determine whether a town (or whatever you call it) like Medini will move forward.

In the worst case, it could still remain deserted and almost like a ghost town as some predicted. Take the present Gleneagles Medini and Mall of Medini for example. Looking at the current situation, I wonder how they can survive based on the lack of numbers, yet having to maintain the daily operating costs.

Will buyers of the many condos in Medini really go stay in their homes in future? So far, the completed 1 Medini and Afiniti condos (supposedly 100% sold out) are still quite deserted. The investors are far from gaining good profits yet.

How can the authorities turn Medini in the next 10-20 years into the present JB, which is not even close to being a financial hub like KL? It's extremely tough and remains to be seen.

 

[Tekkun]

I don't think he meant the smaller developers will run away. So far there is no sign that will be the case.

"Placing bets on the big boys" likely means there are many plans in store for Medini and big names that will be set up there. So if those guys dare to take the lead (or rather, risks as some might say), then the assumption that "we just follow them" will be safe. They must know something.....

But looking at the broader picture, I now personally think a bit similarly to xebay11's point above.

What the big boys do or even if they win, it may not trickle down to the tiny players such as small time investors of Medini. For example, big developers like Sunway are only interested to make money by selling their properties. They can market them by saying all sorts of good things and publish glossy brochures. You buy, they earn your money. But whether you make money or not next time is not their concern.

I think the "eco-system" in a city is very complex. It's easy to argue the HSR, universities, several companies will be there, what could go wrong? Sure huat one. But property investors could still be left dry and will not benefit from all these amenities in place.

Ultimately, it's still how strong Johor's and Malaysian's economy is, the RM currency's strength, demand for jobs, how attractive the salaries are, education level, political stability, quality and expertise of workers that will determine whether a town (or whatever you call it) like Medini will move forward.

In the worst case, it could still remain deserted and almost like a ghost town as some predicted. Take the present Gleneagles Medini and Mall of Medini for example. Looking at the current situation, I wonder how they can survive based on the lack of numbers, yet having to maintain the daily operating costs.

Will buyers of the many condos in Medini really go stay in their homes in future? So far, the completed 1 Medini and Afiniti condos (supposedly 100% sold out) are still quite deserted. The investors are far from gaining good profits yet.

How can the authorities turn Medini in the next 10-20 years into the present JB, which is not even close to being a financial hub like KL? It's extremely tough and remains to be seen.

If you don't mind, may I chip in.

Medini Iskandar is just like any company who need to ply their trade. They are have a job to do ie to market Medini the best they could. You do not expect them to say Medini is going to be ghost town, right?

Big boys or small boys does not matter to me in terms of future of development. I am still the "what you see is what you get" type. Long term guessing or projection is not for me. Too many "subjected to this and that conditions".

Many investors do not understand about the way Malaysia develop their townships. The authorities only do the basic macro development ie to announce whatever incentives, build the infrastructures. It is entirely up to the private sectors to build, lure or bring in the investors. It allow the township to grow naturally according to natural economics.

So to plunge in based entirely on "Malaysian Government efforts" is totally wrong. Of course, the authorities would try to place their public sectors in those office buildings as magnets and hopefully the private sectors would come as well. Office buildings and condominiums are totally different. Offices and shophouses may be fully occupied in the day time but at night, it is totally deserted. So please to not listen 100% to what the Government say as whatever they said is meant for strategic timeline and that means 20 years down the road.

Having said that, I am a strong supporter of Sunway group. I know they not only build but they make efforts to make the township jive. There also another is a very big time developer who just build and deliver but doesn't care if the project is successful or not. Post development is not in their vocab.

 

[xebay11]

I don't think he meant the smaller developers will run away. So far there is no sign that will be the case.

"Placing bets on the big boys" likely means there are many plans in store for Medini and big names that will be set up there. So if those guys dare to take the lead (or rather, risks as some might say), then the assumption that "we just follow them" will be safe. They must know something.....

But looking at the broader picture, I now personally think a bit similarly to xebay11's point above.

What the big boys do or even if they win, it may not trickle down to the tiny players such as small time investors of Medini. For example, big developers like Sunway are only interested to make money by selling their properties. They can market them by saying all sorts of good things and publish glossy brochures. You buy, they earn your money. But whether you make money or not next time is not their concern.

I think the "eco-system" in a city is very complex. It's easy to argue the HSR, universities, several companies will be there, what could go wrong? Sure huat one. But property investors could still be left dry and will not benefit from all these amenities in place.

Ultimately, it's still how strong Johor's and Malaysian's economy is, the RM currency's strength, demand for jobs, how attractive the salaries are, education level, political stability, quality and expertise of workers that will determine whether a town (or whatever you call it) like Medini will move forward.

In the worst case, it could still remain deserted and almost like a ghost town as some predicted. Take the present Gleneagles Medini and Mall of Medini for example. Looking at the current situation, I wonder how they can survive based on the lack of numbers, yet having to maintain the daily operating costs.

Will buyers of the many condos in Medini really go stay in their homes in future? So far, the completed 1 Medini and Afiniti condos (supposedly 100% sold out) are still quite deserted. The investors are far from gaining good profits yet.

How can the authorities turn Medini in the next 10-20 years into the present JB, which is not even close to being a financial hub like KL? It's extremely tough and remains to be seen.

Yep my point exactly, for big boys in property development, when they sell 20 to 30% of the development, they already cover costs, they can easily move on. Small boy left holding the risk.

 

[sgcount]

Big boys or small boys does not matter to me in terms of future of development. I am still the "what you see is what you get" type. Long term guessing or projection is not for me. Too many "subjected to this and that conditions".

Many investors do not understand about the way Malaysia develop their townships. The authorities only do the basic macro development ie to announce whatever incentives, build the infrastructures. It is entirely up to the private sectors to build, lure or bring in the investors. It allow the township to grow naturally according to natural economics.

So to plunge in based entirely on "Malaysian Government efforts" is totally wrong.

But if what we are seeing is something uninspiring, isn't it quite bad? I think people (investors) like HOPE. At least hope based on promises that the authorities will deliver eventually. But how this translates to benefits for the people is still a question mark.

Like I said, they can develop buildings, offices, corporations. But this could be for the big players up there. Small time investors may not necessarily enjoy the same boom.

I am beginning to understand what a Malaysian told me some time back: "Don't think just because they say High Speed Rail is going to be built near your property means you will also prosper."

I think I can see now that indeed, everything is developed based on their own time. They can talk, promise, show pictures, show nice videos. But they will still do what they want slowly. Timeline can be stretched also. Things may or may not happen. This is something non-Malaysian investors may find hard to accept or something new.

To sum up, if that is the case, I think it's still better to buy for one's for needs. If one is going to throw his chips based on news and what is being said by the authorities, it could be a very long wait or even end up nothing to show for.