Tong's Take
The Edge Malaysia 2014, Issue May 12-18
The Edge Malaysia 2014, Issue May 12-18
Better response to the soft launch of phase 1 Avira garden terraces in Medini
last weekend was a much welcomed news for Iskandar Johor, which has seen a
slowing momentum following the property cooling measures introduced late last
year and the stricter mortgage lending rules.
Source : Avira's e-brochure from E&O
Since
its soft launch, Avira has achieved 70% bookings for its 208 units of garden
terraces. The units are priced at an
average of RM580psf and with a built up of approximately 2,200 sf, the average
price for each terrace house was just below RM1.3million.
Avira
is considered one of the more successful launches in Iskandar in recent days.
Why
has Avira done well?
Using
the earlier launch of Puteri Cove in Puteri Harbour as a comparison, we
identified and elaborated on several possible reasons in the article for the
differing market reception towards these two projects, which amongst others,
include pricing, product and branding.
Despite
this, Avira was expected to do better. It
is the last known project in Medini that involves the joint effort of the investment arms of the two
governments; Khazanah and Temasek, and hence are likely to benefit
from the enhanced investor confidence and potentially stronger buying interest on this project. Its pricing is also
relatively lower than the established neighbouring developments like Horizon
Hills and Bukit Indah. These are signs that the property market in Iskandar has
indeed softened.
Read
more in The Edge this week as we shared on what next to watch out for in
Iskandar. Stay tuned.
Hi Mr Tong , how are you doing ? Well do u think avira with its leasehold status is worth to buy ?I heard the sales not that good only 30% sold.. As u know around that Medini area only puteri harbour is freehold but the price there is too high in speculative bubble territory..It's neighbour medini being leasehold is about 1/2 price of puteri small harbour but quite a putoff considering how big is johor with so many freehold area.. basically nothing much there at night at medini especially not much activity .. These are the new town which may take a while to develop.. Assuming the current regime last and their plans carried out accordingly .. If u see in china we have mega ghost cities .. Will iskandar become that also in 2017-2018 when a lot of buildings are ready but may not have anyone staying .. most of the other countries like HK/SG/china already have policy tightening on mortgage way earlier than Msia .. So some of that hot money found its way to iskandar .. But once these hot money is pullout for whatever reason , I forsee it may have a very negative impact on iskandar and it's dream ..... I wonder who are the "population" in iskandar eventually .. Is it the mainlander/PRCs ? Or the Taiwanese , or who ? They seem to buy iskandar but whether they will stay is highly doubtful ..I hope the china developers won't build ghost cities here .. They shld balance the occupants from 100% investors to perhaps 50/50 investors vs owner occupied .. Those places with more investors ratio, during downturn it will be quite bad as everybody will be desperate to offload their property .. I hope this won't happen to iskandar .. The reason i am not positive on iskandar is because I live through a system of various failed policies of the current regime . And when someone lived through that , they will be very skeptical
ReplyDeleteHi OS. I work for a property development company in Iskandar, or rather within the Tebrau corridor of Johor Bahru. To put it in relation to Klang Valley properties, it is like comparing Putrajaya to say, Bandar Utama/Mutiara Damansara area. One area is promoted by state authorities via government initiatives, private and GLC companies, while the other area is all about market driven developments. The difference between Nusajaya/Puteri Harbour/Medini (let's call them "Nusajaya") and Putrajaya/Cyberjaya is the "Singapore" factor. In my humble opinion, Nusajaya, just like Putrajaya will take many years to reach critical mass. The Singaporean and Malaysians working in Singapore is the key to the success of Nusajaya. If they continue to take up and live in it, then critical mass will be achieved sooner rather than later. Will they, won't they? God only knows. I believe that the Mainland Chinese developers see signs of a fledging Shenzhen and are coming in big. Their market is again not the locals, who generally cannot, or won't pay for the kind of hype and prices advertised. Having said that, who is to say that the High Speed Rail and the Rapid Transit Link projects cannot be the catalyst for Iskandar as a whole (and not only Nusajaya). Nusajaya, Johor Bahru, Senai, Pasir Gudang, etc are all part of Iskandar. Johor Bahru, just like KL or PJ, will continue to expand and grow. Affordability will grow, so will demand for better and more modern designed homes. Affordability is the key. Once prices reach stratospheric levels and confidence plunges as a result of an economic contraction, prices will adjust, which we are now seeing in Singapore. Will the prices in Singapore resume their upward trend? Sure it will. Land is scarce there. Will property prices in the various parts of Iskandar continue to go up and up. Don't know over the short term, YES over a longer time frame. Those with deeper pockets will prevail. Those speculators with no holding power will get burnt. So my answer is: there is still value out there, provided you are buying from a position of strength. Hope this helps.
DeletePersonally I feel that Johor is a bubble especially those area which bought by foreigners ..Medini , putri harbour , danga, city area, horizon hill, ledang heights and some parts of nusajaya are all quite illogical prices and speculative .. I prefer those old housing or where the locals are buying .. As there's always market for these group , compare to foreigners which will run or pull out their investment at any given time ..secondly there is very little chance , with all the mortgage lending tightening , that u can hear now people buying 10-30 properties like it use to be .. With bank tightening lending , it "suck the air out of the bubble"!
ReplyDeleteu can compare same house in same area but different neighborhood .. say one is $2mil (gated) in so call prestige neighbourhood/foreigner prefered zone , versus another just nearby 5 Minutes away , and also in nusajaya maybe u can get for rm 350k (ungated) or 500k (gated). Only.. Which one would u buy ? Which one u think will be less impacted in recession ? Which one u think has more demand and pool of buyers ? Haha
ReplyDelete