The RTS Hype, the Exchange Rate, and the Long Game
By Cyan Ho | June 26, 2026
In 2013, I bought a private condo unit in JB. I was a fresh real estate salesperson (RES) at the time, and my agency was the marketing agency for SKS Pavillion Residences, a JB development.
I bought it because of its potential proximity to a future RTS station. Back then, three locations were being considered, with nothing confirmed yet. I had my hopes pinned on Bukit Chagar, the nearest of the three contenders. And as we now know, that's exactly where the RTS station ended up!
So did I make big money? Not yet. On paper, my unit has appreciated. But in reality, the exchange rate has worked against me — it was around 2.5 when I bought, and it's now over 3.
If you're buying into JB property hoping to quick profit from a sale, you might be disappointed. But if you're after rental income as pocket money, that's doable.
Since my wife wasn't keen on renting it out, we kept it as a holiday home instead. We plan to retire there eventually, but for now, it's our favourite spot for quick family staycations, weekend getaways, and food hunts.
Many Singaporeans saw strong rental demand potential in JB, especially near the RTS Link station, betting that improved connectivity would draw tenants commuting daily to Singapore — pushing up both property values and rental yields. Many investors entered the market hoping to ride this growth or secure a future retirement home.
SKS Pavilion Residences was one of the early new launches riding the RTS hype, followed by TriTower Residence and Twin Tower Residence.
The RTS project was originally targeted for completion by 2018 but faced repeated delays, and the hype cooled as the project stalled for years. It officially resumed in July 2020, with a new completion target by the end of 2026.
With the project back on track and a clearer timeline, interest in JB property among Singaporeans has revived.
The announcement of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in early 2025 — which includes JBCC as one of nine flagship zones focused on business services, the digital economy, and health — has further boosted confidence in the area.
Many of us have heard horror stories of buying property in Malaysia—tales of construction stalling halfway through and buyers losing all their hard-earned money. When I collected my keys back in 2016 alongside a few friends who had bought units too, it was a massive sigh of relief. Phew!
At that point, I was still relatively new to the JB market. Excited by the potential, I had shared this opportunity with friends and other new buyers. But as I became more familiar with the wider market cycle, one quiet question kept surfacing: what if our developer had not been able to deliver?
Back then, it was hard to ignore the abandoned concrete structures scattered around Johor Bahru. Even so, as demand for JB property grew, several of these forgotten sites found new life through acquisitions and redevelopment. One standout example is the old Pacific Mall along Jalan Storey, which sat idle for years before being transformed into SKS Tower, now home to the SKS City Mall and a 5-star Sheraton Hotel.
The JB skyline today looks very different from those uncertain early days, let's look forward to the future and see what lies ahead.