My opinion, when you buy a grounded property in JB, my advise do
not think about selling it. The reason is simple, to sell it is not
easy and there are many other residential housing estates around in
JB. It is not easy to get a buyer. Resale value depending which
housing estate you stay, is not that promising. If you want to rent
it, well, depends again because the rent is quite low, especially
when you are a Singaporean and own a grounded property in JB. You
will find it is not worth it to renting it out. If you are thinking
about buying a property just to invest in JB and later on when the
price is right you will sell it to gain good profits, I would
advise you to buy a condominium apartment instead in JB. There is
always some buyers who wish to buy a condominium apartment with
good amenities, security and of course depends again on the
location.
Let me share you something here. In my area, it is an
international lot with grounded properties which is a freehold and
foreigners could buy it under their own name. In the 90s, there
were many Singaporeans who bought those properties in my area
thinking that the whole family will adjust well there. However,
being Singaporeans, pampered with good amenities and conveniency of
public transportation, their children weren’t able to adjust well
with the environment. One reason also because their friends were
all in Singapore. So, some of the Singaporean families moved back
to Singapore because of their children. Then they rented out their
properties to Malaysian University Students. It was going smoothly
at first until the University had build their own campus for their
students to stay within the University compound. Now, most of the
grounded properties own by Singaporeans are rented out to those
Malaysians working in Singapore and some are empty. They only
return once a week for the weekend and during the long holidays.
Some Singaporean owners tried to sell it but they didn’t get
suitable buyers for the price they asking for and its hard to sell
it. The price they bought in the past was about RM200,000 for foreigners and of course for Malaysians it
was around RM150,000. There wasn’t any price
quota like now when a foreigner purchased a freehold landed
property in Malaysia. During that period, Sing dollars currency was
only higher by about 50 cents different when change for Ringgit
Malaysia. Now, if the Singaporean owners wish to sell to
Singaporeans or other nationality for their landed property, they
have to sell it at RM500,000 which is not
easy. If they sell to Malaysians, then it would be around slightly
above RM200,000, the most RM210,000 depending upon what they have done to improve
the interior and exterior of the house. Again, it is not easy to
sell it because Malaysian buyers can still purchase the double
storey houses for less than RM200,000. There
are plenty of landed property houses for Malaysians to choose and
buy. Malaysians can buy as many landed properties in their own
country as long they can afford it. However, many of them too
didn’t pay up the loans from the banks and ended having their
properties being siezed by the bank and open for auctions to the
public. So be mindful of this consequences when you buy a freehold
landed property in JB as a foreigner.
