Johor Bahru residential property rental price gap is small, only 4.7% different from the landlord asking price
KUALA LUMPUR, 28th May 2020: The property overhang in Johor is very significant, and there are media reports stating that it will take 3 years to digest the oversupply property market sales problem. Therefore, local residential property owners have been very pragmatic. The gap between the owners’ average rental asking price and the final transaction price was only 4.7%.
Small units are more popular
Wong Whei Meng, chief executive officer of End-to-End property rental platform SPEEDHOME, stated that, according to the transaction data on the platform for the past year and a half, local high-rise residential properties in Johor are still very popular with young people, especially those with a rental value ranging from RM1200 to 1500, which accounted for the majority.
He added, “The majority of Johor homeowners who use SPEEDHOME services are mostly high-rise properties within 15 kilometers of Johor Bahru. So we have plenty of listings in Johor and most of them are suites (Studio) or small units with two rooms, and our tenant pool is also mostly local.”
Johor Bahru landlords are happy with their rental income
A local SPEEDHOME homeowner said that, when he bought a highrise unit in Johor Bahru, he hesitated upon purchase. But after he found out the price per square foot of a small property unit to be only about RM360, and his 850 square feet home was only about RM280,000, he bought the unit with confidence.
The owner also said: “I have renovated my house a little bit and rented a house at a monthly rent of RM1,000 per month, enough to cover my mortgage. Of course, I also spent quite a long time conducting market research”
It is true that Johor is now in the buyer’s market, but house prices are not necessarily going to fall as much as many may think. At most, they are returning to market rationality, and prices are adjusted slightly. Because the owner can choose to rent out their unit, in order to maintain a certain amount of cash flow even if the house cannot be sold.
Now the online platform is more user friendly
Wong Whei Meng once again urged homeowners to take the initiative to find customers through the online. Homeowners who are not familiar with technology can ask their children for help. Plus, online platforms are now working on creating more user-friendly mobile apps and have teams of customer service professionals to assist. Homeowners should not consider renting houses online as complicated as a complicated process or rocket science.
Finally, he said: “In order to allow the elderly to use our platform services, we also teach the unfamiliar senior elders about our services through the phone or Whatsapp, providing a step by step guide using layman terminology.
