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| High End Landed Wealth |
They account for 74 per cent of purchases made at the various developments by non-Malaysians. Most Singaporean buyers are people who go to Johore frequently for business and those wanting a weekend home.
"They buy more of the upmarket products, as foreigners can only buy units (both landed and strata-titles) that are above RM 500,000 (S$195,000) in value. This they can do with ease especially with the increasing value of the Singapore dollar day after day.
UEM Sunrise is the master developer of Iskandar's Nusajaya area. Its developments include East Ledang, a 111ha project with bungalows and villas and several condominiums at Puteri Harbour, Iskandar's mirror answer to Singapore's Keppel Harbour.
UEM data shows that Singaporean buyers usually outnumber all other foreigners combined. At the Imperia project, Singaporeans made up 39.1 per cent of buyers, eclipsing even Malaysians at 24.3 per cent. Foreigners of other nationalities made up 36.6 per cent.
At neighbouring condo Teega @ Puteri Harbour, 36.5 per cent were Singaporeans, 51.8 per cent were Malaysians and 11.7 per cent were of other nationalities.
It was also pointed out that a substantial proportion of non-Singaporeans who bought units in Iskandar have strong links to Singapore.
Many are Malaysians who live and work in Singapore, while others are expatriates or foreigners who visit often.
"These are people who travel to Singapore regularly for various reasons, like health care, education for their children, business and commerce or for lifestyle."
The high number of investors flocking to Iskandar has pushed prices up considerably.
For instance, prices of bungalows at UEM's East Ledang development have surged 44 per cent on average in the resale market since 2011. Even so, prices in Iskandar are still much cheaper than in Singapore and so continue to appeal to Singaporeans.
A 1,500 sq ft three-bedroom unit at the upcoming Marina One condominium in Singapore is likely to be "in the region of RM 11 million". For the same amount of investment, one can buy two swimming pool villas in East Ledang of 5,500 sq ft sitting on land of about 10,000 sq ft.
As they say, the world is a playground only for those who have money and the Singaporeans are leading the way by making Southern Johore just that.
As the song goes," Money Makes the World go Round."
How true!
