JOHOR BARU: Many Johoreans are seemingly not in a hurry to own real estate, says Andaman Group managing director Datuk Seri Vincent Tiew.
This trend showed through the lack of interest among Johoreans to purchase houses, he said.
A majority of properties sold in Johor were snapped up by non-Johoreans who either worked in the state or wanted to invest there, said Tiew.
“In the past five years, a lot of property transactions in Johor were done by non-Johoreans.
“It seems that Johoreans are not in a hurry to own a house or don’t have the mindset to invest in a property,” he said in a talk entitled “Affordable Luxury: The Way Forward” during the New Straits Times Press MyRumah Property Showcase in Johor Baru recently.
Tiew said the huge number of people who had applied for the recently-launched Sultan Ibrahim Dream House units could mean that Johoreans preferred not to be home owners.
“Media reports stated that more than 260,000 people had applied for the 1,800 house units under the Sultan Ibrahim Dream House scheme. One of the requirements to apply for the units is not owning a house. This shows that many people have yet to own a house,” he said.
On the price range of affordable houses, Tiew said it was the same nationwide, but he advised buyers to study the price tag against the square footage of a property before deciding on buying it.
“Ideally, an affordable unit should be below RM500,000, depending on the size. People should not look at the absolute price of the property but at the price per square feet. A 1,300-sq-ft house at RM400,000 is cheaper than a 500-sq-ft house priced at RM250,000.”
He added that the price range for affordable homes should be maintained until at least 2022.