Are rental yields in Johor still attractive?

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Are Johor rental yields still high today?

Yes, Johor rental yields are still attractive today, although the average is closer to “good” than exceptional.

The latest comparable dataset from Global Property Guide puts gross apartment yields at about 5.3% in Johor Bahru and 5.8% in Iskandar Puteri. Malaysia overall sits at roughly 5.3%, while Kuala Lumpur is closer to 4.9%. Johor therefore still works well for income, especially once we move away from the most expensive new projects.

The spread inside Johor is more revealing than the state-level average. Johor Bahru one-bedroom apartments average about 6.0% gross, compared with 5.2% for two-bedroom units and 4.4% for apartments with four bedrooms or more. Iskandar Puteri shows a similar pattern, with studios around 6.2%, two-bedroom apartments near 5.9% and three-bedroom units around 6.4%.

Some individual areas go considerably higher. Global Property Guide's current asking-price dataset produces yields above 6% for several Tampoi unit sizes and even higher figures in parts of Skudai. We would treat the extreme numbers cautiously because asking rents and asking prices do not guarantee completed transactions, but they show that 6% yields have certainly not disappeared from Johor.

Market	Current gross apartment yield	What we make of it	Main issue
Iskandar Puteri	~5.8%	Attractive	Depends heavily on project
Johor Bahru	~5.3%	Good	Premium projects dilute the average
Malaysia	~5.3%	Benchmark	Johor Bahru roughly matches it
Kuala Lumpur	~4.9%	Lower	Johor keeps an income advantage
Singapore	~3% range	Much lower	Helps explain cross-border interest

Why do Johor condo yields vary so much?

Johor condo yields vary so much because buyers can pay almost twice as much for similar monthly rent depending on the building.

This is probably the most important thing to understand about Johor today. Two condos serving broadly similar tenants can produce completely different returns because the rental gap is much smaller than the purchase-price gap.

At R&F Princess Cove, for example, older Phase 1 two-bedroom units can still appear around the RM700,000 range, with rents around RM3,000-RM3,300. That gives us roughly 5%-5.7% gross.

Some newer or more expensive Phase 2 units are marketed around RM1 million or above, while achievable two-bedroom rents remain broadly around RM3,000-RM3,500. At RM1.2 million and RM3,300 a month, the yield falls to about 3.3%.

Danga Bay can produce the opposite result. Bay Laurel units are currently advertised from roughly the RM400,000s, while decent two-bedroom rents can sit around RM2,300-RM2,500. A buyer entering at RM470,000 and renting at RM2,400 reaches about 6.1% gross.

The rental difference between those examples is fairly small. The purchase-price difference can exceed RM700,000.

Are smaller Johor condos still the best rental-yield play?

Yes, smaller Johor condos currently give investors the best chance of getting above a 6% gross yield.

Global Property Guide's latest figures put Johor Bahru one-bedroom apartments around 6.0% gross, against 5.2% for two bedrooms and 4.4% for units with four bedrooms or more. In Iskandar Puteri, studios sit around 6.2% and three-bedroom units surprisingly reach roughly 6.4%, so size is not the only variable, but compact units still tend to work well.

TriTower near JB Sentral shows how powerful the entry-price effect can be. Recent rents include studios around RM2,500 and two-bedroom apartments around RM3,500. PropertyGuru currently shows sale inventory starting below RM400,000, although the cheapest units are not directly comparable with the larger rental listings.

This is where buyers need to match the exact unit type rather than divide the building's cheapest sale price by its highest rent. When comparable smaller units can be bought around RM450,000-RM500,000 and genuinely rented near RM2,400-RM2,700, gross yields can move into the 6%-7% range.

Landed homes usually struggle to compete on income. A RM1 million house renting for RM3,500 produces 4.2% gross, whereas a RM500,000 condo at RM2,400 gives 5.8%. Landed property may still make sense for capital appreciation or personal use, but we would generally choose a good condo if rental yield is the priority.

Is Iskandar Puteri better for rental yield than Johor Bahru?

Right now, Iskandar Puteri has a slight yield advantage over Johor Bahru on broad apartment data.

The current average is about 5.8% in Iskandar Puteri versus 5.3% in Johor Bahru. That gap is useful because Johor Bahru gets far more attention from investors focused on Singapore, CIQ and the RTS Link.

The reason is fairly straightforward. Central Johor Bahru commands higher rents, but buyers also pay heavily for convenience. Iskandar Puteri rents can be lower in absolute ringgit terms while purchase prices fall by enough to leave a better percentage return.

A RM1 million condo collecting RM3,500 a month gives 4.2% gross. A RM500,000 condo collecting RM2,500 gives 6%.

For rental investors, the second property is doing far more work with each ringgit invested.

Does buying near the Johor-Singapore RTS automatically give you a better yield?

No, buying near the Johor-Singapore RTS can improve rental demand while still leaving the owner with a mediocre yield.

The RTS is now close enough to opening that we can treat it as real infrastructure rather than a distant promise. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs says passenger service is targeted to start in December. The line will connect Bukit Chagar with Woodlands North in about five minutes and handle up to 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction.

Passengers will also clear both countries' immigration checks before boarding. For anyone commuting between central Johor Bahru and Singapore, that removes one of the biggest daily annoyances.

Tenants should pay for that convenience. Investors already are.

Current TriTower rents of roughly RM2,500 for studios and around RM3,500 for many two-bedroom units show strong willingness to pay near JB Sentral and CIQ. Yet sale prices in the premium central-JB market can climb quickly enough that the yield falls below what cheaper Johor projects generate.

An RTS-linked apartment therefore deserves a rental premium. We just would not pay an unlimited purchase-price premium to get it.

Has the RTS premium already pushed some Johor condo yields too low?

Yes, the RTS story has already pushed parts of central Johor Bahru into prices that are difficult to justify with rent alone.

R&F Princess Cove Phase 2 is a useful example. PropertyGuru currently shows hundreds of sale and rental listings in the project, with a very wide sale-price range extending well above RM1 million. Typical ordinary-unit rents remain in the low thousands of ringgit rather than rising in proportion to those premium prices.

A RM1.2 million condo rented at RM3,300 produces 3.3% gross. Even RM3,600 a month only gets us to 3.6%.

Compare that with a RM470,000 Danga Bay unit rented at RM2,400. The tenant pays RM900 less per month, while the investor commits RM730,000 less capital.

The extra RM730,000 buys only RM10,800 more annual rent in that example. The additional capital is earning about 1.5% in extra rental income.

That can still be rational for someone betting on long-term appreciation around the RTS. As a pure rental-yield trade, the maths is poor.

Example	Indicative price	Indicative monthly rent	Gross yield
Danga Bay resale	RM470k	RM2,400	~6.1%
R&F Phase 1-type pricing	RM700k	RM3,300	~5.7%
Premium central-JB condo	RM1.0m	RM3,300	~4.0%
Higher-priced RTS-linked unit	RM1.2m	RM3,300	~3.3%

Are older Johor condos now better rental investments than new launches?

Often, yes. Older Johor condos currently give us some of the best rent-to-price ratios in the market.

Bay Laurel at Country Garden Danga Bay shows why. Current PropertyGuru listings put sale inventory from roughly the RM400,000s, while the rental market extends into the RM2,000-plus range for ordinary apartments. A two-bedroom bought around RM470,000 and rented for RM2,400 gives about 6.1% gross.

A newer unit around RM1.2 million may collect RM3,300. The landlord gets RM900 more each month after committing roughly RM730,000 more capital.

This gap has developed because Johor rents have recovered much faster than the resale values of some older, once-unpopular projects. Years of oversupply and weak investor sentiment left certain buildings cheap. Tenants care less about that history when a unit is furnished, well located and rents for hundreds of ringgit less than a newer alternative.

We would still inspect management quality, maintenance, occupancy and the condition of the common areas very carefully. Cheap resale stock deserves its discount in some buildings. But when the building works properly, the old-versus-new pricing gap is currently one of Johor's clearest yield opportunities.

Is Danga Bay still worth buying for rental income?

Selected Danga Bay condos are still worth considering for rental income because resale prices remain low enough to support 5%-6% yields.

Country Garden Danga Bay remains a good example of how an old oversupply problem can eventually help new buyers. The project accumulated a poor reputation during Johor's earlier construction boom, which held back resale prices for years.

Current Bay Laurel listings still show units in the RM400,000-RM600,000 range, while two-bedroom rents around RM2,300-RM2,500 are realistic in the broader Danga Bay market.

Buying at RM470,000 and renting at RM2,400 gives 6.1% gross. Paying RM570,000 for an almost interchangeable unit at the same rent brings the return down to 5.1%.

So even inside one development, a RM100,000 difference in purchase price can wipe roughly one percentage point off the yield.

Purchase price	Monthly rent	Gross yield	Our view
RM470k	RM2,400	6.1%	Attractive
RM470k	RM2,500	6.4%	Strong
RM570k	RM2,400	5.1%	Fine
RM600k	RM2,400	4.8%	Harder to justify

Could Johor's huge condo supply push rents back down?

Yes, Johor's large serviced-apartment pipeline is the biggest threat to today's rental yields.

NAPIC data has repeatedly shown Johor carrying Malaysia's largest stock of completed unsold serviced apartments. Recent market analysis based on NAPIC figures put completed unsold serviced apartments close to 10,000 units, with a much larger pool once projects under construction and yet to be built are added.

This risk goes beyond units sitting unsold with developers. Once an investor buys one of those apartments, it can immediately become another competing rental listing.

Current portals already show how deep that competition can become. R&F Princess Cove Phase 2 alone has hundreds of units advertised both for sale and rent. Bay Laurel also has well over 100 rental listings on PropertyGuru.

Johor can absorb plenty of housing if cross-border commuting and employment keep expanding. Still, buildings with hundreds or thousands of near-identical apartments give tenants enormous bargaining power.

We therefore place much more value on a 6% yield in a building with limited competing inventory than on the same 6% in a development where another 200 landlords can undercut the rent.

Will another wave of new Johor condos make today's 6% yields disappear?

Some 6% Johor yields will probably get squeezed as new supply arrives, especially in generic serviced apartments.

Recent NAPIC-based analysis showed Johor's unsold serviced apartments under construction increasing from roughly 7,000 to around 8,500 in a year. The pool of unsold units where construction had not yet started jumped much faster, from only a few hundred to more than 4,000.

That gives us a useful clue about where risk sits. The problem is less severe for properties tenants cannot easily replace.

A genuinely walkable apartment near JB Sentral, CIQ or Bukit Chagar has a location advantage that another tower several kilometres away cannot copy. A generic two-bedroom condo with a swimming pool, gym and car park competes with dozens of projects offering almost the same thing.

These days, we would therefore discount headline yields more aggressively in large new serviced-apartment clusters. A current 6% yield is much less reassuring when the tenant has a long list of substitutes coming.

Will the RTS really create enough renters for Johor Bahru?

The RTS should bring more renters into central Johor Bahru, but expecting it to fill every new condo would be far too optimistic.

The transport change itself is substantial. The Johor Bahru-Singapore RTS will connect Bukit Chagar and Woodlands North in roughly five minutes, with peak capacity of up to 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction and immigration clearance completed before boarding.

That should expand the group of people willing to live in Johor while working, studying or doing business in Singapore. A commute that currently depends on unpredictable Causeway traffic becomes far easier to plan.

The effect will also be highly local.

A tenant crossing the border five days a week will care enormously about whether the apartment is a short walk from Bukit Chagar or requires another 20-minute drive. Properties around JB Sentral and the city centre should therefore capture much more of the RTS rental premium than condos further away that simply use “RTS” in their marketing.

We expect stronger demand around the station. We do not expect the RTS alone to absorb Johor's entire high-rise pipeline.

Is the Johor-Singapore SEZ already creating real housing demand?

Yes, the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone is starting to create a much stronger employment base, although much of the resulting housing demand is still ahead of us.

The freshest investment figures are unusually strong. MIDA reported RM59.4 billion of approved investment in Johor during the first half of 2026, making it Malaysia's second-largest investment destination behind Selangor. Johor had already accumulated RM126.9 billion of approved investment between 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.

The scale of the projects matters more than the headline alone. MIDA says the JS-SEZ attracted RM77 billion across 393 approved projects in 2025, associated with more than 18,000 employment opportunities. Brooks Automation, for example, has invested more than RM235 million in its Johor manufacturing operation, with its workforce expected to grow from more than 300 people to roughly 420 and eventually 550.

The investment mix is also broader than data centres. Advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, logistics, energy, technology and business services are all part of the SEZ push. That gives the rental market a healthier demand base because these sectors employ very different kinds of workers.

Johor's enormous data-centre buildout strengthens the story but should not be exaggerated. Data centres consume huge amounts of capital and electricity while employing relatively few people once operational. They help rental demand; factories, offices, services and cross-border commuting will probably create far more tenants.

So far, the economic evidence is moving in the right direction. Approved investments still need to turn into completed facilities and actual workers before we count all of that money as housing demand.

How much of a 6% Johor rental yield do you actually keep?

A 6% gross Johor condo yield can easily fall into the 4%-5% range after normal ownership costs.

Take a condo bought for RM470,000 and rented at RM2,400 per month. Gross annual rent is RM28,800, giving us a headline yield of 6.13%.

Suppose an 800 sq ft unit carries maintenance of RM0.40 per sq ft each month plus a 10% sinking-fund contribution. Annual strata costs come to roughly RM4,224. One empty month removes another RM2,400.

Income then falls to about RM22,176 before assessment tax, quit rent, repairs, insurance and income tax. That is roughly 4.7% of the purchase price.

If the owner also pays one month's rent to find a replacement tenant that year, the figure drops to around 4.2%.

Global Property Guide reaches a similar broader conclusion in its Malaysian yield methodology: net returns commonly end up around 1.5-2 percentage points below gross yields.

RM470k condo example	Annual income left	Yield on purchase price
Gross rent	RM28,800	6.13%
After indicative strata costs	RM24,576	5.23%
After one vacant month	RM22,176	4.72%
After one-month leasing fee	RM19,776	4.21%

Does borrowing still work for a Johor rental property?

Borrowing can still work in Johor, but a 3%-4% gross-yield condo leaves almost no room for error.

Malaysia's policy rate currently sits at 2.75%, while actual housing-loan rates remain higher once bank spreads are included. Standard indicative mortgage examples from major banks remain around the 4% range, with some closer to 4.5%.

A condo producing 3.5% gross therefore starts below its financing cost before we have paid maintenance, allowed for vacancy or fixed anything.

A 6%-6.5% gross property gives the investor far more breathing room. Even then, leverage can reduce cash flow sharply depending on the loan-to-value ratio and interest rate.

This is one reason we are much more demanding on yield than a few years ago. A buyer accepting 3.5% because “Johor will go up” is making a capital-growth bet. Someone buying at 6% has rental income doing meaningful work from day one.

Are Johor rental yields as attractive for foreigners?

No, foreign buyers have a harder time accessing Johor's best rental yields because many of the cheapest high-yield units fall below the normal foreign-purchase threshold.

Johor generally applies a RM1 million minimum purchase price to foreign buyers for residential property, subject to property type and state approval rules. Foreign purchasers can also face state consent charges.

That cuts out a large part of the market we find most interesting.

Several of the strongest examples in Johor sit between roughly RM400,000 and RM700,000. A Malaysian buyer can potentially buy one of those resale condos at a 5.5%-7% gross yield. A foreign buyer may be pushed toward RM1 million-plus properties where rents have not risen enough to preserve the same return.

The practical difference is substantial. RM500,000 at RM2,500 monthly rent gives 6%. RM1 million at RM3,500 gives just 4.2%.

Foreign investors can still find good Johor deals, especially where exemptions or qualifying developments apply, but they should not assume the headline yields seen in cheap resale listings are available to them.

Should you trust a Johor condo advertised with a 7% rental yield?

No, a 7% advertised Johor rental yield needs to survive a few basic reality checks before we treat it as real.

The first question is whether the rent comes from an actual tenancy or an optimistic listing. The second is whether the purchase price refers to a genuinely comparable unit. Then we need to check vacancy, maintenance fees, furnishing costs, management quality and competing inventory inside the same development.

Johor's current listing market makes sloppy calculations especially dangerous. A portal can show a building with sale prices starting at RM380,000 and rents reaching RM3,500, yet those figures may refer to completely different floor areas and bedroom counts. Dividing one by the other creates a beautiful yield that nobody can actually earn.

Supply also changes how much confidence we should place in the number. A landlord earning 7% inside a building with hundreds of competing rentals may need to cut rent at the next renewal.

We would rather own a repeatable 5.8% property with good occupancy and a proven tenant pool than chase a theoretical 7.5% that only works under perfect assumptions.

What rental yield should you demand in Johor now?

For a Johor condo bought mainly for income, we would currently target at least 5.5%-6% gross and push above 6% when the building carries obvious supply risk.

Below 4%, we find the rental case weak. The investor is mostly relying on future price appreciation.

Around 4%-4.5%, an exceptional location near the RTS or another scarce feature can make the deal understandable, but the income itself does not excite us.

Between 4.5% and 5.5%, the deal becomes reasonable if vacancy is low, management is good and future competing supply looks manageable.

From roughly 5.5%-6.5%, Johor starts to look genuinely attractive as an income market. Above 6.5%, we become interested very quickly, while checking carefully why the unit is selling cheaply enough to offer that return.

The threshold also needs to move with the building. We would accept somewhat less yield for a scarce apartment genuinely walkable to Bukit Chagar than for another interchangeable serviced apartment in a huge complex.

Are rental yields in Johor still attractive?

Yes, rental yields in Johor are still attractive today, especially around 5.5%-6.5% gross, but buyers now have to be much more selective about what they buy and what they pay.

The average numbers still hold up. Johor Bahru is around 5.3% gross and Iskandar Puteri around 5.8% in the latest comparable dataset. Selected resale condos can exceed 6%, particularly where rents have recovered faster than old resale prices.

Meanwhile, some premium new or RTS-themed properties have moved in the opposite direction. Paying RM1 million or more for rent of only RM3,000-RM3,500 can leave an investor around 3%-4%. That is difficult to call an attractive rental investment today.

The demand side is getting stronger. The RTS is approaching operation, Johor received RM59.4 billion of approved investment in the first half of 2026, and the JS-SEZ is bringing advanced manufacturing, technology, logistics, services and thousands of planned jobs into the state.

Supply keeps us from becoming bullish on every condo. As seen above, Johor still carries a very large serviced-apartment inventory, and landlords in huge developments can face hundreds of competing units.

Our conclusion is quite sharp: Johor still works very well for rental yield when the purchase price is disciplined. Older resale stock around RM400,000-RM700,000 often looks more convincing than expensive new launches, while genuinely scarce RTS locations can justify paying a little more.

For income investors today, the sweet spot is a property where tenants already pay strong rent and the selling price has not yet caught up.

Who is the author of this content?

BAMBOOROUTES

A team specialized in real estate investing in APAC countries (Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, etc.).

We are a team of financial experts, legal professionals, developers, and local real estate specialists dedicated to helping people like you avoid mistakes when investing in real estate in a foreign place, particularly in Johor. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can check our presentation page.