Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Johor
SUMMARY
Homes in Johor are still fairly affordable overall: the statewide median is about RM443,000, but Johor Bahru and the strongest Singapore-facing parts of Iskandar already sit well above that level.
The biggest mistake is treating Johor as one market. RM450,000 is still close to normal statewide, while a prime landed home in Horizon Hills is already a seven-figure purchase and some new high-rise projects near the Causeway are marketed above RM1,000 per square foot.
Johor Bahru carries a clear metro premium. Its recent median is around RM570,000 and RM430 per square foot, roughly one-third above the statewide price-per-square-foot benchmark.
RM500,000 is still a useful budget. It sits above the statewide median and can still buy older apartments, suburban homes and some landed stock, although it is already below the midpoint of Johor Bahru transactions.
Total price can be misleading in the condo market. Some units look cheap because they are small, while Iskandar Puteri condominiums trade around RM624 per square foot and individual projects can reach materially higher levels.
Affordable landed housing has not disappeared. Taman Kota Masai recently showed hundreds of landed transactions around RM350,000, but buyers generally have to move away from central Johor Bahru and the most sought-after Iskandar locations to stay comfortably below RM500,000.
RM1 million still buys an upper-end home across most of Johor. The statewide upper quartile is only RM670,000, so seven figures remain well above what most buyers pay even though that same budget can feel merely entry-level in a few premium southern pockets.
The Singapore effect is already visible in prices, especially around Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri and established cross-border communities. Buyers should not assume the RTS opening will create a brand-new premium that the market has somehow missed.
Johor also has a real high-rise overhang. Nearly 10,000 completed unsold serviced apartments mean scarcity is not a good blanket explanation for expensive new launches, and weaker projects still have to compete with a lot of finished stock.
Foreign buyers see a much more expensive version of Johor because the state generally imposes a RM1 million minimum purchase price for foreign interests. That threshold starts them well above both the statewide and Johor Bahru medians before approval fees are added.
The practical range is still roughly RM400,000 to RM700,000 for a large share of local buyers. The more expensive Singapore-facing layer is real and growing, but it still does not define the price of a normal Johor home.
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How expensive are homes in Johor now?
Johor homes are still fairly affordable by Malaysian big-city standards, with the latest 12-month transaction data putting the statewide median at about RM443,000, but Johor Bahru and the Singapore-facing parts of Iskandar are already much more expensive.
Brickz recorded 17,899 Johor residential transactions between July 2025 and June 2026. The median sale price was RM443,300, while half of all transactions landed between RM282,000 and RM670,000. The median price per square foot was RM323.
Johor Bahru sits clearly above that state average. Brickz recorded a median of about RM570,000 across 1,516 residential transactions over the same 12-month period, with half of sales between RM400,000 and roughly RM784,000. The city median of RM430 per square foot was about one-third higher than Johor's statewide RM323.
Then prices stretch much further in specific projects. Horizon Hills landed homes recently had a RM1.33 million median, while some newer city-centre and Causeway-facing condominiums are marketed around or above RM1,000 per square foot.
So when someone asks how expensive Johor homes are today, the useful answer depends heavily on which Johor they mean. A RM450,000 home is still normal statewide. A RM1 million property is already expensive across most of Johor, but increasingly ordinary in a few premium southern pockets.
| Current Johor market | Recent median price | Median price per sq ft | What the figure tells us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johor statewide | RM443,300 | RM323 | The broad market is still below RM500k |
| Johor Bahru | RM570,000 | RM430 | JB carries a clear metro premium |
| Johor Bahru non-landed | RM500,888 | RM494 | Condos and similar stock are pricier per sq ft |
| Johor Bahru apartments | RM340,000 | RM348 | Older/basic apartments remain cheap |
| Iskandar Puteri condos | RM500,000 | RM624 | Smaller units push psf prices higher |
| Horizon Hills landed | RM1.33 million | RM583 | Prime landed Johor is already a seven-figure market |
Why does Johor property look so expensive online?
Johor property often looks more expensive online because buyers browsing from Singapore or overseas are disproportionately shown new projects near Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri and the Causeway rather than the homes most Johor residents actually buy.
The gap is large enough to distort someone's entire impression of the market. Statewide, half of the latest recorded Johor transactions were below RM443,300. Even in Johor Bahru, the median was RM570,000.
International-facing projects sit much higher. Current marketing for newer developments around the city centre and CIQ frequently reaches four-digit prices per square foot, particularly for compact units sold on connectivity, views and access to Singapore.
Compare that with Johor Bahru's overall RM430-per-square-foot median or the RM348 median for ordinary apartments. A buyer browsing glossy new projects can easily be looking at space priced two or three times above the city norm.
Those premium prices are real. They just describe a narrow slice of Johor far better than they describe the whole market.
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Can RM500,000 still buy a decent home in Johor today?
Yes, RM500,000 is still a serious home-buying budget in Johor today and sits slightly above the latest statewide median transaction price.
The freshest Brickz data makes this easy to see. Johor's statewide median was RM443,300, while the upper quartile was RM670,000. Someone spending RM500,000 is therefore buying near the middle of the real market rather than scraping around its cheapest edge.
Johor Bahru is tighter. Its recent median was RM570,000, so RM500,000 now falls somewhat below the city midpoint. Even there, it remains enough for many older apartments, flats, terrace houses in less expensive neighbourhoods and selected suburban developments.
Taman Johor Jaya is a useful example. Recent residential transactions there produced a median around RM490,000. Johor Bahru apartments more broadly recorded a RM340,000 median between March 2025 and February 2026.
The trade-off becomes obvious as buyers move closer to prime Singapore-facing locations. RM500,000 can still buy a Johor home quite comfortably; it just buys much less near the most hyped parts of central JB and Iskandar.
How much does a normal Johor Bahru home cost now?
A normal Johor Bahru home currently costs around RM570,000, with roughly RM400,000 to RM784,000 covering the middle half of recorded transactions.
That range is more useful than a single average because Johor Bahru includes everything from RM185,000 flats to multimillion-ringgit landed homes.
Brickz recorded 1,516 transactions between July 2025 and June 2026 at a median of RM570,000 and RM430 per square foot. A separate longer window extending through June put the figure very close, around RM580,000, which gives us some confidence that the current level is real rather than a short-lived monthly distortion.
Older neighbourhoods remain below that number. Taman Johor Jaya recently sat around RM490,000, while Bandar Baru Uda was around RM540,000.
At the other end, the city's premium master-planned areas already operate well above RM1 million.
For a buyer who simply wants to know what a realistic Johor Bahru budget looks like these days, RM500,000–RM800,000 covers much of the mainstream market.
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Are Johor condos actually cheap?
Johor condos can still be cheap in total price, but some now look expensive once we compare how much buyers pay for each square foot.
Johor Bahru's recent non-landed median was RM500,888, with half of transactions between RM350,000 and RM720,000. Ordinary apartments were much cheaper at a RM340,000 median.
Iskandar Puteri shows why total price can be deceptive. Condominium transactions there had a RM500,000 median but a much higher RM624 per square foot. Grand Medini, for example, recently recorded a median sale around RM367,455 while reaching roughly RM769 per square foot.
Iskandar Residence @ Medini went the other way: the median transaction was around RM793,115 at RM635 per square foot.
So a RM370,000 Johor condo may look cheap beside a RM700,000 terrace house while actually being expensive for the amount of indoor space the buyer receives. That's the catch.
| Recent high-rise market | Median transaction price | Median RM/psf | What stands out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johor Bahru apartments | RM340,000 | RM348 | Cheap conventional apartment stock |
| Johor Bahru non-landed overall | RM500,888 | RM494 | Broad condo/high-rise benchmark |
| Iskandar Puteri condos | RM500,000 | RM624 | Higher price for each sq ft |
| Grand Medini | RM367,455 | RM769 | Low entry price, small expensive space |
| Iskandar Residence @ Medini | RM793,115 | RM635 | Larger total ticket |
| Horizon Hills non-landed | RM891,800 | RM806 | Clearly premium high-rise stock |
Can you still buy a landed house below RM500,000 in Johor?
Yes, sub-RM500,000 landed homes still exist across Johor, although RM500,000 now buys much less once we move into established parts of Johor Bahru.
The statewide market still contains large volumes of terrace housing in this range. In Pasir Gudang, Taman Kota Masai recorded 419 recent landed transactions at a median of RM350,000. That is a large enough sample to show that affordable landed Johor is still a real market rather than a handful of distressed listings.
Kulai sits higher. Bandar Putra Kulai recently recorded 335 transactions at a median of roughly RM579,000.
Johor Bahru itself has moved further up again. Taman Johor Jaya's overall median was around RM490,000, already placing a RM500,000 budget close to the local midpoint rather than comfortably above it.
A buyer can therefore still find a landed Johor house below RM500,000 today, but location does most of the work. Moving away from central JB and premium Iskandar townships still saves hundreds of thousands of ringgit.
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How expensive is Iskandar Puteri now?
Iskandar Puteri currently ranges from roughly RM350,000 condos to RM1 million-plus landed homes, making it one of the clearest examples of how misleading a single Johor average can be.
The latest condominium data recorded 113 Iskandar Puteri transactions over 12 months at a RM500,000 median. Half sold between roughly RM389,000 and RM765,000.
Individual projects spread much further. Grand Medini's median was around RM367,455, while Iskandar Residence @ Medini reached about RM793,115.
Horizon Hills sits in another category altogether. Landed transactions between July 2025 and June 2026 had a RM1.33 million median. The lower quartile was RM1.1 million and the upper quartile RM1.75 million.
Even within Horizon Hills, housing type changes the answer sharply. Terrace houses had a recent RM1.1 million median, cluster houses were around RM1.54 million, and the small sample of bungalow transactions produced a median above RM5 million.
Calling Iskandar Puteri simply “cheap” or “expensive” misses too much. It currently contains mass-market condos, premium condos and some of Johor's most expensive landed housing within the same wider area.
What does RM1 million buy in Johor today?
RM1 million still buys an upper-end home across most of Johor, but around the strongest parts of Johor Bahru and Iskandar Puteri it is increasingly becoming an entry ticket rather than a luxury budget.
Start with the statewide distribution. Johor's latest upper quartile was RM670,000. Spending RM1 million therefore puts a buyer well above at least three-quarters of recorded state transactions.
Johor Bahru's upper quartile was around RM784,000, so RM1 million remains above the city's normal range too.
Horizon Hills shows where the meaning changes. Its landed lower quartile was already RM1.1 million. A RM1 million budget there sits below what three-quarters of recent landed buyers paid.
Current city-centre new launches can create the same effect in high-rise form. At four-digit per-square-foot pricing, a reasonably sized two- or three-bedroom unit can quickly approach or pass RM1 million.
Across ordinary Johor, seven figures still means expensive. Around selected Singapore-facing neighbourhoods, RM1 million increasingly buys the lower end of the premium market.
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Why are some Johor Bahru condos above RM1,000 per square foot?
Some Johor Bahru condos can now command RM1,000-plus per square foot because buyers are paying heavily for the exact location near Singapore-facing transport and amenities, not because ordinary Johor Bahru housing suddenly became a four-digit-per-square-foot market.
The benchmark makes the premium obvious. Johor Bahru residential transactions currently sit around RM430 per square foot. Non-landed stock is closer to RM494, while Iskandar Puteri condos average around RM624.
A new unit sold at RM1,100 or RM1,200 per square foot therefore comes in at roughly twice Johor Bahru's broad high-rise transaction level and almost three times the wider residential median.
Some of that gap is easy to explain. Newer towers offer modern facilities, better finishes and smaller units, which naturally increases the price per square foot. But proximity to JB Sentral, the CIQ and Bukit Chagar adds another layer.
The important point for buyers is the size of the premium. Paying RM1,100 per square foot in a city where completed non-landed homes transact around RM494 requires a very strong location or rental story to make the numbers work.
Has the Singapore effect already pushed up Johor home prices?
Yes, Singapore-linked demand has already pushed up prices in parts of southern Johor, and we can see it most clearly in Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri and premium communities tied closely to cross-border living.
Johor Bahru's RM570,000 median is about 29% above the statewide RM443,300 figure. Its median price per square foot is roughly one-third higher as well.
Move into Iskandar Puteri condos and the gap widens: RM624 per square foot compared with RM323 statewide. Horizon Hills landed homes now sit around RM1.33 million at the median.
Those differences have several causes, so attributing every ringgit to Singapore would go too far. Johor Bahru is also the state's economic centre, and premium master-planned communities would cost more even without cross-border buyers.
Still, the pattern lines up strongly with where Singapore access matters most. Prices rise as we move toward JB's main employment and transport nodes, then stretch further in neighbourhoods marketed around cross-border convenience.
The Singapore effect is already in Johor prices. What remains uncertain is how much more buyers should pay for it from here.
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Is Johor running out of cheap homes?
Johor is nowhere close to running out of cheap homes, and current transaction data still shows a deep market below RM500,000.
The statewide lower quartile is only RM282,000. The median is RM443,300. Even the upper quartile is RM670,000.
Johor Bahru itself still contains flats with a recent median around RM185,000 and apartments around RM340,000. Taman Kota Masai in Pasir Gudang has recently produced hundreds of landed transactions around RM350,000.
The affordable side of Johor is therefore still large enough to show up consistently across thousands of actual sales.
What has become harder is finding cheap housing in the locations everyone suddenly wants. Central JB, the Causeway corridor and established Iskandar communities have been pulling away from the rest.
A buyer who can compromise on location still has plenty of sub-RM500,000 choices. A buyer who wants new construction within the strongest Singapore-facing areas will face a very different market.
Does Johor have too many unsold homes for prices to keep rising?
Johor still has a serious oversupply problem in high-rise housing, which should make us skeptical of any claim that all Johor property prices can simply keep rising together.
NAPIC's latest available Q1 2026 market-status data recorded 3,852 completed unsold conventional residential units in Johor.
The serviced-apartment number is much larger: 9,972 completed unsold units. Johor alone accounted for more than half of Malaysia's 19,263 completed unsold serviced apartments.
That concentration is hard to dismiss. Almost 10,000 finished serviced apartments looking for buyers means Johor does not have a general shortage of high-rise homes.
The overhang also explains why two apparently contradictory things can happen at once. An ordinary serviced apartment can struggle to sell while a scarce unit next to the CIQ commands a large premium. Buyers care about location, tenure, layout, developer quality and actual commuting convenience, so excess stock elsewhere does not automatically drag every project down equally.
Still, nearly 10,000 completed unsold serviced apartments give buyers leverage and make weak projects vulnerable. We would be very cautious about paying a large new-build premium merely because a salesperson says “Johor is booming.”
| Latest available overhang measure | Johor | Malaysia | Johor's share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completed unsold conventional residential | 3,852 units | 32,801 units | About 12% |
| Completed unsold serviced apartments | 9,972 units | 19,263 units | About 52% |
| Combined Johor stock from these two categories | 13,824 units | 52,064 units | About 27% |
| Serviced-apartment overhang value band most exposed nationally | RM500,001–RM1m | 58.5% of units | Important overlap with Johor investor stock |
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Why does RM1 million matter so much for foreign buyers in Johor?
RM1 million matters far more to foreign buyers because Johor's state rules generally stop foreign interests from buying ordinary residential property below that price.
Johor's Land and Mines Office currently states a RM1 million minimum for permitted residential purchases by foreign interests, covering qualifying terrace houses, cluster houses, semi-detached homes, bungalows and apartments or holiday homes, whether bought from developers or on the secondary market.
Compare that threshold with the market itself. Johor's recent statewide median is RM443,300. Johor Bahru's is RM570,000. A foreign buyer starting at RM1 million is therefore entering at more than twice the statewide median and roughly 75% above the Johor Bahru median.
The state also charges for foreign-interest approval. Johor's current fee schedule lists 3% of the property value or RM30,000, whichever is higher, for residential and commercial approvals, alongside a RM2,000 application registration fee.
This creates a major perception gap. Malaysian buyers can participate across the RM300,000–RM700,000 core of the market. A conventional foreign buyer browsing eligible properties starts around RM1 million, so Johor immediately looks much more expensive.
| Buyer perspective | Relevant price | Position in current Johor market | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide median buyer | RM443,300 | Middle of Johor market | Broad choice |
| Johor Bahru median buyer | RM570,000 | Middle of JB market | Good mainstream choice |
| Johor statewide upper quartile | RM670,000 | Above 75% of state sales | Strong local budget |
| Typical foreign minimum | RM1,000,000 | Far above statewide median | Much smaller eligible market |
| Horizon Hills landed median | RM1,330,000 | Premium Johor | Already above foreign minimum |
| Foreign approval charge at RM1m | RM30,000 | 3% | Added state-level acquisition cost |
Is the RTS already priced into Johor Bahru homes?
A meaningful part of the RTS story is already priced into Johor Bahru property near the border, so buyers should be careful with the idea that opening day will suddenly reveal a value nobody has noticed yet.
The Johor Bahru–Singapore RTS Link is designed to carry up to 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction. Passenger service is targeted to begin by the end of 2026, with the cross-border link connecting Bukit Chagar and Woodlands North.
That is a genuine change in connectivity, especially for people currently dependent on congested road crossings.
Property buyers have had years to anticipate it, however. Bukit Chagar, JB Sentral and CIQ-adjacent developments have already become some of the most heavily promoted real estate in southern Malaysia. Their asking prices frequently sit far above Johor Bahru's roughly RM430-per-square-foot transaction median.
The clearest way to think about the RTS today is through that existing premium. Buyers are no longer paying ordinary JB prices while waiting for an unknown train project. In the hottest locations, they are already paying extra because the train is expected to work.
Further gains are possible, particularly if actual ridership and rental demand beat expectations after opening. But anyone buying at a huge premium now needs the RTS to deliver more than mere completion.
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So, how expensive are homes in Johor now?
Johor homes are still relatively affordable overall, with a current statewide median around RM443,000, while Johor Bahru has moved closer to RM570,000 and the strongest Singapore-facing locations can already cost well above RM1 million.
That is the clearest answer after looking at the latest transactions.
A budget around RM300,000–RM400,000 can still reach apartments, older homes and landed housing in cheaper parts of the state. Around RM500,000, buyers have meaningful choices across Johor and can still enter Johor Bahru. Between RM600,000 and RM800,000, they are operating around the centre to upper-middle of the JB market.
RM1 million remains expensive across most of Johor. The state's latest upper quartile is only RM670,000, so a seven-figure purchase sits well above what most people actually pay.
The situation changes around premium Iskandar and Singapore-facing Johor Bahru. Horizon Hills landed homes now have a RM1.33 million median, Iskandar Puteri condos can trade above RM600 per square foot, and selected new projects near the border ask more than RM1,000 per square foot.
Those premium prices attract enormous attention, but they still sit on top of a much cheaper underlying market. The latest transaction data, thousands of sub-RM500,000 sales and Johor's large unsold high-rise inventory all point in the same direction.
Johor today is a roughly RM400,000–RM700,000 housing market for a large share of local buyers, with a much more expensive layer forming around the parts of southern Johor most exposed to Singapore. That premium layer is real and getting harder to ignore, but it still does not define the price of a normal Johor home.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests how expensive homes in Johor are by separating the statewide market from Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri, landed housing, high-rise housing and premium Singapore-facing locations. We rely first on recent filed transactions, then use official market-status data, foreign-purchase rules and RTS Link information to explain where the price gaps come from.
Brickz is the main transaction source. We use its recent medians, price-per-square-foot figures and quartile ranges for Johor statewide, Johor Bahru, Johor Bahru non-landed homes and apartments, Iskandar Puteri condominiums, Horizon Hills, Taman Johor Jaya, Bandar Baru Uda, Taman Kota Masai and Bandar Putra Kulai. Project-level figures are used as examples of how far premium or compact-unit pricing can move away from the broader market, rather than as substitutes for citywide medians.
For oversupply, we use NAPIC and JPPH's Q1 2026 market-status data, including completed-unsold conventional residential units and serviced apartments. Those figures are important because a market can have rising prices in selected locations while still carrying a large amount of finished high-rise stock elsewhere.
For foreign-buyer rules, we use the Johor Land and Mines Office for the RM1 million residential minimum, eligible property categories, the RM2,000 application fee and the approval charge of 3% of property value or RM30,000, whichever is higher. For the RTS Link, we use primary information from Malaysia's Ministry of Transport, Singapore's Land Transport Authority and MRT Corp on the Bukit Chagar–Woodlands North route, capacity and service timetable.
Key sources used for this analysis include: Brickz on Johor statewide residential transactions, Brickz on Johor Bahru residential transactions, Brickz on Johor Bahru non-landed homes, Brickz on Johor Bahru apartments, Brickz on Iskandar Puteri condominiums, Brickz on Horizon Hills landed housing, NAPIC's market-status archive, NAPIC's Q1 2026 market snapshot, Johor Land and Mines Office on foreign property purchases, Johor Land and Mines Office on foreign-purchase fees, Malaysia's Ministry of Transport on the RTS Link, Singapore LTA on the RTS Link, and MRT Corp on the latest RTS construction milestone.
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