Despite attracting businesses, students and house hunters, Iskandar Malaysia is still plagued with concerns on the area’s viability and oversupply of homes, reported The Straits Times.
Data from Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) showed that the region’s population rose from 1.45 million in 2005 to 1.6 million in 2014 and 1.8 million currently.
It has also taken in RM222.4 billion worth of investments as at 31 December 2016, surpassing its RM149 billion initial target.
This has led to the creation of 702,000 jobs, around 15 percent of which involve skilled workers, noted IRDA.
Iskandar’s international schools has been a major draw for students.
In fact, the EduCity hub within the Iskandar Puteri zone saw its student body balloon from 78 in 2011 to over 4,000 now. EduCity managing director Joanne Oei expects the student population to grow by 20 percent next year.
This comes as two more schools are expected to open soon – the Malaysian outpost of MDIS Singapore is set to open in Q3 2017 in EduCity, while American boarding school Shattuck St Mary will open in August 2017 within the Forest City development.
The region has also been attracting businesses.
Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) president Douglas Foo believe that more Singapore manufacturers have moved their operations in Iskandar. IRDA revealed that the region houses over 300 Singapore manufacturing projects in 2012.
Foo noted that SMF, which organises four to five trips to the region annually, saw at least 20 companies participating in each trip.
Despite these, caution still reigns in the region as investors are spooked by the influx of large Chinese investments starting in 2013 as well as the cooling measures rolled out in 2014.
A major concern is whether Iskandar Malaysia can generate enough job and critical mass in order to sustain its development.
International Property Advisor chief executive officer Ku Swee Yong said the region had placed “the cart before the horse”.
“People need an economic or social reason to be there, such as family or jobs. When you create a new township with no shared history and no sense of community, and the impetus is only that the land is cheap, people who move in will eventually move out.”
Nonetheless, Savills Malaysia head of research and consultancy Amy Wong remains optimistic that the proposed Rapid Transit System and High Speed Rail that will connect Johor Bahru and Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, respectively, will catalyse business and population growth within the region.
“These inflow investments and infrastructure development will hopefully bring in more jobs and generate higher income in Iskandar Malaysia,” said Wong.
Image sourced from Borneo Post
Radin Ghazali, Content Writer at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email radin@propertyguru.com.my
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