Malaysian developer targets Singapore buyers for Johor project
Developer UEM Sunrise says a falling ringgit and city state's property curbs will boost sales
UEM Sunrise, Malaysia's second-biggest developer by market value, is betting the slide in the local currency and measures to curb property prices in neighbouring Singapore will boost sales at its largest projects.
UEM may surpass its new sales target of three billion ringgit (HK$7.35 billion) for the year, chief executive Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim said.
The developer is the biggest landowner in the Iskandar region in Malaysia, an economic development zone about twice the size of Hong Kong in southern Johor state bordering Singapore.
Iskandar "is more attractive and so cheap in comparison to Singapore", Abdullah said in Singapore on Thursday.
The ringgit has dropped 5.4 per cent against the Singapore dollar over the past four months and the city state has been implementing curbs to cool an overheated property market, prompting Singaporeans to look for cheaper property across the border.
Singaporeans accounted for 74 per cent of overseas buyers, making them the largest foreign and second-largest group of purchasers of UEM's properties after Malaysians, Abdullah said.