22-07-2012, 11:13 AM
For those who need their property "kick", there's always Johor..... 
*For the full article, please visit the website.
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Jul 22, 2012
More S'poreans cross Causeway to buy homes
Favourable exchange rate and lure of landed property are among the reasons cited
By Melissa Tan , Teo Cheng Wee
When Ms June Chan first went to Johor Baru to scout for potential properties in February, she spotted a villa going for a pretty price.
Built on a sprawling 16,000 sq ft compound was a single-storey bungalow with three rooms and a swimming pool. It was in the Leisure Farm development, in Johor's Iskandar region. The price: RM3.8 million ($1.52 million).
Within two months, Ms Chan, 52, decided it was a good deal and plunged in.
'It's a second home for living in while my Singapore house is for rental,' said Ms Chan, who is single and retired from a multinational corporation two years ago. She is now doing humanitarian work.
With property prices rising in Singapore, more Singaporeans have begun looking to Malaysia for investment or to buy their second homes. The weakening Malaysian ringgit, the lure of owning landed property and familiarity with the country are reasons they cite for looking north.
The Malaysian property market has been heating up in recent years, much like in the rest of Asia.
Official figures from Malaysia Property Inc - an agency that promotes Malaysia's real estate internationally - the total transaction value of real estate in Malaysia was RM137.8 billion last year, up 28 per cent from RM107.4 billion in 2010.
About 2 per cent of that figure is foreign investment.
Johor has seen the strongest surge in interest from foreign investors in the past year, according to the agency.
In the first half of 2010, foreigners made up only 4 per cent of Johor property transactions, for properties priced above RM1 million. In the corresponding period last year, however, that figure shot up to 25 per cent.
Much of the demand has been generated by the buzz over the Iskandar region, earmarked by the Malaysian government as a major growth area for the country.
There are also now big Singapore companies investing in Iskandar.
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*For the full article, please visit the website.
The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Jul 22, 2012
More S'poreans cross Causeway to buy homes
Favourable exchange rate and lure of landed property are among the reasons cited
By Melissa Tan , Teo Cheng Wee
When Ms June Chan first went to Johor Baru to scout for potential properties in February, she spotted a villa going for a pretty price.
Built on a sprawling 16,000 sq ft compound was a single-storey bungalow with three rooms and a swimming pool. It was in the Leisure Farm development, in Johor's Iskandar region. The price: RM3.8 million ($1.52 million).
Within two months, Ms Chan, 52, decided it was a good deal and plunged in.
'It's a second home for living in while my Singapore house is for rental,' said Ms Chan, who is single and retired from a multinational corporation two years ago. She is now doing humanitarian work.
With property prices rising in Singapore, more Singaporeans have begun looking to Malaysia for investment or to buy their second homes. The weakening Malaysian ringgit, the lure of owning landed property and familiarity with the country are reasons they cite for looking north.
The Malaysian property market has been heating up in recent years, much like in the rest of Asia.
Official figures from Malaysia Property Inc - an agency that promotes Malaysia's real estate internationally - the total transaction value of real estate in Malaysia was RM137.8 billion last year, up 28 per cent from RM107.4 billion in 2010.
About 2 per cent of that figure is foreign investment.
Johor has seen the strongest surge in interest from foreign investors in the past year, according to the agency.
In the first half of 2010, foreigners made up only 4 per cent of Johor property transactions, for properties priced above RM1 million. In the corresponding period last year, however, that figure shot up to 25 per cent.
Much of the demand has been generated by the buzz over the Iskandar region, earmarked by the Malaysian government as a major growth area for the country.
There are also now big Singapore companies investing in Iskandar.
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