KULAI: More than 2,000 units of unsold serviced apartments in Johor have been snapped up since last year, thanks to the development of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
State housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said demand for properties in Johor has gone up since last year’s announcement about the SEZ.
“The property overhang issue in Johor has been improving steadily since the start of last year. The announcement has further boosted sales.
“We have been seeing a rising demand for properties, including serviced apartments that were previously difficult to sell.
“Some developers said they were able to sell all of their properties that they were not able to before,” he said after presenting aid to students enrolling in higher learning institutes at Dewan Raya Kampung Melayu yesterday.
According to Mohd Jafni, serviced apartments priced at RM600,000 and above make up the majority of Johor’s overhang.
“We have no problem with other types of houses in Johor. The only properties that are rather challenging to sell are serviced apartments above half a million ringgit.
“Currently, there are about 11,000 unsold serviced apartment units in Johor. This is a drop from about 13,000 earlier last year,” he said.
Mohd Jafni said the move to ease the conditions of the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme last year has also helped to reduce the overhang.
“I believe the remaining unsold properties will be sold in the next two to three years, allowing us to solve this issue once and for all,” he said.
On another matter, Mohd Jafni said six abandoned and “sick” housing projects have been solved over the past two years.
“We are also paying special attention to abandoned housing projects and aim to solve 10 of them in two years. This began last year.
“So far, six of them have been settled, and the remaining four are expected to be resolved by the end of this year,” he said, adding that by doing so, the state government will be able to alleviate the problems faced by some 3,500 buyers of properties worth nearly RM1bil.
On an unrelated matter, Mohd Jafni said the Johor Zoo, which has been closed since 2020, is expected to be reopened by the end of August.
“Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi is expected to visit the zoo in the middle of next month and announce the official reopening date.
“In anticipation of a large crowd coming to the zoo on the first day of its reopening, we have set up a task force involving 15 agencies to manage the situation,” he said, adding that the agencies involved are the police and Tourism Johor.
The zoo, one of the oldest in the country, was closed for upgrading in 2020.
