Shop lots in Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru
Johor Bahru’s supper capital and the first stop for Singaporeans crossing after dark. Ground-floor rents of RM9,000–12,000 make it the most expensive strip in the city ring.
- Ground floor rent
- RM9,000–12,000per month
- Median transacted
- RM825,000RM358 psf · — deals
- Peak trading
- Nightly, 7pm–2am; Monday night market
- Catchment
- Singaporean supper crowd, city residents, medical and education traffic
The map loads here on the published site.
If you have never been here
The 60-second orientation.
- Zone
- City ring, Johor Bahru
- Main commercial street
- Jalan Kuning
- Transaction window
- July 2024 – June 2025, residential proxy — commercial series not published
| Destination | Drive | Why it matters to a tenant |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore (Causeway/CIQ) | 12 min | The nearest supper destination once across. Traffic peaks after 8pm. |
| RTS Bukit Chagar | 10 min | Second-ring beneficiary of the RTS. Not walkable, but the shortest drive of any suburb. |
| KSL City / Taman Abad | 5 min | Adjacent Singaporean shopping node; complementary, not competing. |
| JB City Centre | 8 min | The daytime CBD; Pelangi takes the evening. |
| Mid Valley Southkey | 10 min | Major mall competition for daytime retail. |
Why this strip is busy
The demand engines — and what each one actually pays for.
The supper economy — nightly, not weekly
Pelangi trades hardest between 7pm and 2am, seven nights a week. Singaporeans crossing after work arrive hungry and this is the first serious food destination they reach.
Twelve minutes from the Causeway
Closer to Singapore than any other established F&B strip except the CBD itself. That proximity is why the supper habit formed here and not elsewhere.
Medical, education and services layered on top
Clinics, tuition centres and the newspaper street give the precinct a weekday daytime function that pure supper strips lack.
The RTS second ring
Ten minutes from Bukit Chagar. Rail arrivals who want a proper meal rather than a mall food court will be routed here by every Singaporean food blog.
What Taman Pelangi actually looks like
Real, freely-licensed photographs of this area — with the licence on every caption.
Every photograph on this page is a real, freely-licensed image of this area, reused with attribution under its stated Creative Commons licence — not a stock photo and not generated. Licences are linked on each caption. If you own a better shot of your own shopfront here, send it to us and we will feature it with a credit and a link.
What Taman Pelangi has that the others do not
Not “advantages” — structural facts a competing location cannot copy.
A supper habit decades in the making
Pelangi has been on the Singaporean late-night map since long before Mount Austin or Eco Botanic existed. Habit of that depth is not marketable by a competitor.
The Monday night market
A recurring weekly event that pulls its own crowd into the precinct. Very few Johor strips have a named, dated draw.
Proximity that cannot be replicated inland
Twelve minutes from the Causeway is a permanent property of the land. Every strip further east pays for that distance in lost evening trade.
Who actually walks past your door
Estimated share of retail spend, by ethnicity and customer type. Read the last row before you commit.
| Segment | Share | Per visit | When | Concepts that win them |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singaporean supper and evening visitors | 30–40% | RM40–100 | Nightly after 8pm; peaks Fri–Sun | Supper, seafood, dessert, massage, cafes |
| City-ring Chinese Malaysian residents | 30–35% | RM25–60 | Daily; nightly supper | Kopitiam, supper, cafes, clinics, tuition |
| Malay households | 15–20% | RM18–45 | Evenings, weekends, Ramadan | Halal F&B, pharmacy, banking |
| Indian Malaysian households | 8–12% | RM20–45 | Evenings and weekends | Mamak, banana leaf, gold, clinics |
| Medical and education visitors | 5–10% | RM25–60 | Weekday daytime | Pharmacy, clinics, cafes, printing |
| Daytime destination shoppers | <5% | RM30–70 | Rare — they go to Southkey or KSL | Daytime retail concepts underperform here. |
Ethnic composition
2022 citizen electoral roll for the P.160 Johor Bahru federal constituency, which contains this precinct. The roll counts registered voters only — it excludes non-citizens (migrant workers, Singaporeans, expatriates) and everyone under 18. Source: ElectionData.MY.
The city seat is Malay-majority on the roll — 52.5% Malay and Bumiputera against 39.1% Chinese, and only 5.9% Indian, the lowest Indian share of the six Johor seats in this series. Two corrections follow: halal provision matters more in the CBD than the heritage shophouse frontages suggest, and an Indian-cuisine concept has a thinner resident base here than in Tebrau or Iskandar Puteri. The roll also understates the daily Singaporean crowd entirely.
Catchment and market depth
Scale indicators for this precinct.
Rent and price schedule
Market bands, September 2026. Corner, frontage and existing tenancy change everything.
| Level & position | Monthly rent | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Ground floor | RM9,000–12,000 | Anchor F&B, retail, clinic, salon |
| 1st floor | RM2,000–4,000 | Studio, tuition, spa, private dining |
| 2nd floor | RM1,400–2,800 | Back office, storage, co-working |
| Whole block | RM11,000–18,000 | Multi-floor F&B, medical, corporate |
| Asset | Asking range | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|
| Shophouse, intermediate | RM1.6M–2.6M | 3.5–4.5% |
| Shophouse, corner | RM2.8M–4.2M | 3.5–4.5% |
| Reference: — recorded transactions at a median of RM825,000 and RM358 per sq ft (July 2024 – June 2025, residential proxy — commercial series not published). Source: brickz.my, from JPPH transaction data. | ||
What is missing — the opportunity list
Compiled from listings, directories and on-the-ground survey. Absence of evidence is not proof of absence — verify before you commit.
The honest assessment
Every agent will tell you the first column. Read the second one twice.
- Twelve minutes from the Causeway. The nearest established supper destination once across.
- A nightly, not weekly, trade. Seven evenings a week rather than four. That is a materially better revenue structure.
- A recurring weekly draw. The Monday night market pulls its own crowd.
- Second-ring RTS beneficiary. Ten minutes from Bukit Chagar — the shortest drive of any JB suburb.
- The highest rents in the city ring. RM9,000–12,000 a ground floor. At 15% rent-to-revenue you need roughly RM70,000 a month.
- No published commercial transaction series. We could not retrieve a Brickz commercial median for Taman Pelangi. The residential figure shown is a proxy only. Commission a valuation before you transact.
- Plaza Pelangi is weak. The mall has lost ground to KSL and Southkey. The streets are healthy; do not assume the mall is.
- Evening-only revenue structure. You are paying city-ring rent for a precinct that earns after 7pm. Daytime concepts struggle.
- RTS shoppers skew value-seeking. Academic commentary suggests rail arrivals favour affordable food over premium. Price accordingly.
How it compares with the other JB strips
Ground-floor asking rents from live portal listings, September 2026.
| Strip | GF rent / month | Who shops there | Parking | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Austin | RM3,800–9,500 | Dense local Chinese Malaysian; highest weekday volume in JB | Congested | Your model needs volume seven days a week and you can live without parking. |
| Bukit Indah | RM2,500–4,200 | AEON-anchored footfall plus Singaporean day-trippers | Adequate | You want an Eco Botanic customer at roughly half the rent. |
| Eco Botanic | RM6,000–15,000 | Singaporean weekenders, EduCity students, expat families | Free, ample | You want high basket size and can survive a soft Monday–Thursday. |
| Taman Molek | RM4,500–15,000 | Affluent Chinese Malaysian, expat and Singaporean | Tight | You are an evening or bar operator with an existing following. |
| Sutera Utama | RM3,500–25,000 | Affluent Skudai households; the state’s highest median price | Adequate | You sell premium and need a catchment that pays for it. |
| Johor Jaya | RM2,200–4,500 | 66,000 residents; the most balanced ethnic mix in JB | Adequate | You want the healthiest yield and the deepest deal flow. |
| City Centre / IIBD | RM5,000–13,000 | Singaporean walk-in via CIQ; RTS terminus January 2027 | Paid / limited | You want walk-in cross-border traffic and will pay for the story. |
Ground-floor asking rents from live portal listings, September 2026. Expect 5–15% negotiation room on any of them. We will tell you honestly when another strip is the better commercial decision for your concept.
Buying, not renting? Same area, the residential side — NAPIC registered transactions, median price, median PSF and the 12-month move: Taman Pelangi landed data → · condos · industrial
What it actually costs to open here
Rent is the number everyone quotes. It is rarely the number that kills the deal — the fit-out is.
| Item | Amount (RM) | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Fit-out — full F&B with kitchen | 231,000 – 539,000 | RM150–350 psf on 1,540 sq ft. Kitchen exhaust, grease trap and M&E are what push it up. |
| Fit-out — basic retail (indicative) | 150,000 – 280,000 | Mid-range commercial guidance; no retail-specific Malaysian benchmark is published. |
| Deposits — 2 months + 1 advance + ½ utility | 36,750 | The Malaysian “2 + 1 + ½” convention, payable before you touch the unit. |
| Stamp duty on the tenancy | 504 (1 yr) / 1,512 (3 yr) | RM1 per RM250 of annual rent for ≤1 year; RM3 for 1–3 years. The RM2,400 exemption was abolished in January 2025. |
| Legal fee — tenancy agreement | 3,150 | Solicitors Remuneration Order 2023, Second Schedule: for a tenancy at RM10,000/month or less, 30% of one month rent (min RM500). Above RM10,000/month the rate steps down to 15–25%. A lease (term over three years, common on commercial units) is charged separately and higher — 60% of one month rent up to RM10,000, then 30–50%. |
| Agent commission | 0 | 1.25 months rent, paid by the landlord by convention. A tenant paying this is being overcharged. |
| TNB three-phase connection + deposit | 4,300 – 6,900 | RM1,700 connection plus RM2,600–5,200 deposit at 10–20 kW. Deposit earns 2.5% p.a. and is refundable. |
| Licences — premise + signboard, first year | Budget 700 – 1,200 | Premise licence fees are set by your own council (MBJB / MBIP / MBPG / MPKu) by business type and floor area — confirm with them. Signboard licence RM200–400. This line is a planning allowance, not a quoted fee. |
| Sdn Bhd incorporation | 1,000 | SSM fee. A foreigner cannot register a sole proprietorship. |
| Realistic total before you sell anything — F&B | 276,750 – 596,750 | Plus opening stock, POS, signage design, insurance and 3 months working capital. |
Cost model, licences, the full FAQ and sources & method are on one page: the Johor Bahru shop lot guide.
Two ways we can help
We hold ready units here that are never listed publicly, and current developer rebate sheets for the new phases.
Tell us the concept. We will send matching units within 24 hours.
Most good ground-floor units in Taman Pelangi change hands before they are advertised. Send us your trade, floor area, budget and target opening date, and we will come back with what is actually available — including units where the current tenant is quietly looking to assign.
- Off-market and tenancy-assignment units
- Floor plans, actual outgoings and licensing feasibility
- Foreign-buyer and non-resident tenancy guidance
Or WhatsApp / call +60 10-906 6685 · email
No fee to tenants and buyers. Reply within one working day.
Get the current new-launch rebate sheet for this corridor.
New commercial phases carry incentives that are never published — early-bird discounts, rebates, rent guarantees and fit-out allowances that shift monthly. We will send you the live sheet with the yield maths done.
- Live rebate and package comparison across projects
- Net yield modelling after outgoings and financing
- Foreign purchase threshold and state consent levy notes
Or WhatsApp / call +60 10-906 6685 · see new launches
Includes the RM1M foreign-buyer floor and the 3% state consent levy for Johor commercial property.
Questions people actually ask
Short, direct answers.