Johor’s State Housing and Local Government Committee Chairman Abdul Latiff Bandi said on 8 October 2013  that the new tax 4 to 5 per cent of the property value would likely be implemented by January next year, in a bid to control property prices and foreign ownership, the New Straits Times reported. The levy would apply to both commercial, residential properties and also properties in the secondary market.

 

 

Policies to dampen speculation and even prevent a possible property bubble according to budget 2014 are:

(1)  one-off payment of RM10,000 levy previously and now 4% ~ 5% levy of the property value for foreigner buyer.

(2)  minimum price of property that can be purchased by foreigners increase from RM500,000 to RM1,000,000, however this does not applicable to property in MEDINI.

(3)  Developers not allowed to offer  Developer Interest Bearing Scheme (DIBS) during construction.

(4)  Sales tax and service tax to be abolished, to be replaced by Goods and Services Tax(GST) at 6% effective April 1, 2015.

(5)  RPGT for foreigner when  disposal a property from year 1 to year 5  increase to 30% , 6th year & above is 5%.

 

Whether the new ruling would have impact on the Iskandar property market, some analysts said Johor Iskandar properties will still be attractive to Singaporeans despite the new measure.  In fact, there are still good deals in the market where Malaysian developers are offering attractive payment schemes and the initial cash payment works out which is still  affordable due to the strong Singapore dollar against the Malaysian ringgit.