Singaporeans will snap up Johor property if threshold drops, says Zuraida
The housing and local government minister says it is up to Johor to decide whether to allow foreigners to buy properties worth RM600,000.
KUALA LUMPUR: It is likely that Singaporeans will snap up unsold luxury properties in Johor if the price threshold for foreigners is lowered from RM1 million to RM600,000, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said today.
“Singaporeans will be attracted to Johor because it’s nearby. But it all depends on the state government if they want to follow the new threshold or not.
“The state government is free to determine what is the best threshold for them,” she added after attending the International Day of the Girl Child event at Berjaya Times Square Hotel today.
Johor Housing, Communication and Multimedia Committee chairman Dzulkefly Ahmad had said that real estate priced above RM600,000 made up 60-70% of unsold properties in the state. There are 51,000 unsold properties in the state.
He said the state Land and Mines Office will make a decision on lowering the price threshold for foreigners to buy properties in Johor as it came under its jurisdiction.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, in his 2020 Budget speech, said the lower threshold price of RM600,000 for foreigners was expected to reduce the overhang of existing unsold condominiums and apartments in urban areas worth RM8.3 billion.
Zuraida did not think that lowering the price threshold would threaten local buyers in Johor.
“What we’re seeing is an overhang in properties. They have not been sold for quite some time. If local buyers wanted to buy them, they would have bought them some time ago.”
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Zuraida said it was wrong to think that developers would increase prices of lower-end properties to RM600,000 to take advantage of the announcement.