Those who can, do, those who can't, teach (or give seminars).
I have never taken the real estate "experts and seminars" seriously. If they know so much why not just invest and make money, is it out of the goodness of their heart they want to share their knowledge, or is there is more money to be made in diverting the public the way they want, they are like boiler room stock promoters.
I am not an expert…and I don’t give seminars, I based the following on my research and experience.
I watched my hometown Vancouver become a part of the Pacific Rim by developing land adjacent to the city into a thriving water front community over a 15 year period (which the locals did not buy into at first, sound familiar?) The foreigner factor continues to influence the Vancouver real estate market, and from all indications Nusajaya is following in the same path.
Hearing about the investment by people from Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand and Indonesia indicates Iskandar is not only driven by Singaporeans and Malaysians. Nor does it appear to be driven only by short term investment. It appears to be the birth or an ideally situated city, where people will want to live, work, play, visit, and retire. There have been parallels drawn with Shen Zhen to Hong Kong in terms of a support of the larger city but I see Iskandar being even more.
Yes a new government could create a self fulfilling prophecy creating restrictions which strangle foreign investment bring the entire thing down (Iskandar won't survive on local investors and buyers alone, nor could have Vancouver).
Yes Singapore could lock the gates and allow no one over the bridges.
Yes the real estate bubble in China could burst, dragging down stock markets, killing investment and the world economy, yes this would affect investment in Iskandar, and the rest of the world so nowhere is safe in that situation.
And there are other possibilities that could hurt Iskandar (what that guy said about rising sea water a while back
), however with the investment that has been made by gov and influential organization and people, the direction appears solid and positive. Where else has this kind of money being invested outside the Middle East and China?
When it comes to investing in KL, been there, don’t want to live there. I drink Coke, so why would I invest in Pepsi.
An in regards to prices, I do not believe they are as related to local historical prices and local debt service ratios then in other markets. This is a new city targeting foreign investors and foreigners to live there, and this has an impact.
I would not have paid 150,000 US for the first apartments in the waterfront of Vancouver when they were build, now they are now 700,000+ and as a well paid local I could not afford one, too bad for me, now is my chance at my waterfront condo and lifestyle.
And lastly Malaysia being rated #4th best place in the world to retire (if it was not for the bad climate rating of 60 out of 100, it would be close to number #1, what are they talking about I love the climate).
With the degrading security issues in Mexico and central America (I have to smile at the security concerns Singaporeans have with Iskandar), I expect a more baby boomer, early retiree wanabies, and people who figured out they are not funded well enough to retire in Europe and North America, will catch on and continue to spur demand for years to come.
I remember when there was only 4 billion people in the world, now there is 6, when Iskandar is done in 2025 there will be 8 billion, we have to live somewhere and God’s not making any new waterfront.
