MRT and 3rd link will be game changers. When they are done. If they are done well and the border crossing is managed well.
Buying now to profit from the gains certainly makes sense. It does have risks though. It is easier to talk about a wonderful future than actually pull it off. But Iskandar has been doing things well for the last 5 years. That is reassuring. The new CEO was right when he said the next 5 years is going to be harder than the last 5.
Iskandar can run into some real traffic problems (both locally and with inadequate capacity to Singapore).
The MRT and 3rd link will enable more Singaporean investment. I think one of the huge keys is Singapore companies actually moving some jobs to Johor. That will greatly help ease the bottleneck at the links and immigration. This is common pattern (moving jobs to suburbs) across the globe. Normally keep executive offices and some functions in the city, move more than 50% off to the suburbs. They can't do that if the links between the two countries are too frequently delayed (a small percentage of people need to commute between the 2 sites but if it isn't reliable that is a big problem).
That they plan on such huge increases in Iskandar population and jobs and already have bad delay problems is a big issue. Even if the 3rd link and MRT are done perfectly and very speedily this could create big problems for years (prior to those solutions getting in place and functioning at maximum capacity). Especially if more isn't done to move some jobs from Singapore. If you can move 100,000 jobs that are currently done by people commuting into Singapore that will be a huge help. Of course the increased tourism traffic going to Iskandar can easily overcome those gains and make the problem worse.
It is a delicate balance. And it is especially tricky when the plan is for such dramatically quick and huge growth.
To say nothing of the very serious global economic risks. Really bad problems in Europe, USA, China or even Japan can have serious repercussion very quickly.
But for things to go well I think the 2 biggest keys are very good transportation operations between Singapore and Johor and actually getting close the hoped for number of good jobs in Johor. The prospects for that look good. Another key is transportation within Iskandar. That isn't an bad problem yet. But with the current growth plans it could become a major issue very quickly. It is something you have to plan for years in advance and if you miscalculate it can create huge problems.
The keys are actually very easy to manage compared to the issues most areas would face attempting anything like Iskandar. That is do in big part to Singapore, and also to how well Iskandar has been managed by Malaysia so far. They have really set things up to succeed very well. But a few slip ups and quickly you can get in trouble and things can "snowball" http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/a-snowball-effect very quickly (right now this is happening in a positive way, but it can happen in a negative way much more quickly).
