Johor property market thrives

Johor’s property landscape has slowed but it is still thriving, said Ken Ng, head of Exquisite Mode Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of United Malayan Land Bhd.

He noted that although the state saw fewer projects recently, things are still moving. Ng believed that Johor will do well as long as Singapore did well.

Among the developments within the Johor Bahru City Centre is the multi-billion transformation programme which aims to revitalise and rejuvenate the city.

Along Jalan Wong Ah Fook and Jalan Trus is the RM500 million Suasana Iskandar, an integrated project featuring a hotel, retail space and serviced apartments.

“The Sungai Segget stretch will be the next Orchard Road,” said Ng.

Notably, there will be a two-storey shopping mall, a 29-storey serviced apartment and an 18-storey hotel, which will be operated by Onyx Hospitality Singapore.

“There is still shortage of good hotels here,” he said, adding that the hotel will be four to four and a half stars.

Ng also revealed that a third of the residential units have already been sold at an average price of RM1,100 psf.

Locals accounted for 50 percent of home buyers, while the rest were foreigners, most of which were from Singapore and around 10 percent were from Japan.

As to the mall, Ng said the company is set to meet potential tenants from Singapore next week as well as local tenants early next month.

“About 30 Singaporean retailers have expressed interest. We want to bring something different to Malaysia while maintaining a local touch,” he said.

The project is set to be completed in 2016, with the hotel slated for an opening towards the second half of the year.