Koon Yew Yin, 3rd Sept 2024

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.

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).

“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.

KSL is a Johor property development company.

The above table is the comparison of the top 9 property developers listed in Bursa Malaysia. The last traded share price for KSL was RM1.65. Based on the PE ratio, KSL is the cheapest stock.

KSL announced its total 4 quarter EPS of 42.3 sen and its net tangible asset (NTA) backing of RM3.86. It is selling for less than 50% of its net tangible asset (NTA).

KSL is undervalued. Its share price should go up.