Shop lots in Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru
Not one commercial centre but several small ones scattered along the trunk road. There is no single high street here, and pricing a unit means pricing its specific cluster.
- Ground floor rent
- RM1,500–6,500per month
- Median transacted
- —— psf · — deals
- Peak trading
- Weekday evenings and weekends
- Catchment
- Dispersed township and semi-rural households plus trunk-road traffic
The map loads here on the published site.
If you have never been here
The 60-second orientation.
- Zone
- North-eastern Johor Bahru
- Main commercial street
- Jalan Ulu Tiram
- Transaction window
- no published commercial transaction series — asking prices only
| Destination | Drive | Why it matters to a tenant |
|---|---|---|
| Johor Jaya | 12 min | The nearest real retail strip; takes occasion spend. |
| Mount Austin | 15 min | The regional destination. |
| Kota Tinggi trunk road | On it | Through traffic in both directions. |
| Setia Indah / Adda Heights | 12 min | Competing township retail. |
| JB City Centre / RTS | 28 min | No RTS benefit. |
Why this strip is busy
The demand engines — and what each one actually pays for.
Trunk-road through traffic
The Kota Tinggi road carries steady two-way traffic all day. Fuel, quick food and convenience trade on that alone.
A dispersed catchment with no dominant centre
Each cluster serves its own immediate housing. Competition within a cluster is small even where the district is busy.
Low entry into the JB commuter belt
RM750,000 for an intermediate unit inside MBJB. Very few places offer that.
Residential growth pushing outward
JB’s housing frontier keeps moving north-east. Ulu Tiram is where it is currently arriving.
What Ulu Tiram 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 Ulu Tiram has that the others do not
Not “advantages” — structural facts a competing location cannot copy.
Micro-catchments with almost no direct competition
Within a single cluster you may be the only operator in your category for two kilometres.
Trunk-road frontage
Through traffic is a demand source that residential-only townships simply do not have.
The cheapest way into MBJB territory
Same council, same licensing regime as Mount Austin, at a fraction of the price.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malay township households | 38–43% | RM12–32 | Daily; strong in Ramadan | Halal F&B, mini-mart, pharmacy, kids’ services |
| Chinese Malaysian households | 35–40% | RM15–40 | Daily; evening peak | Kopitiam, hardware, clinics, provision, tuition |
| Trunk-road drivers | 15–20% | RM10–30 | All day | Fuel, quick food, convenience, car wash |
| Indian Malaysian households | 12–15% | RM12–32 | Evenings and weekends | Mamak, clinics, provision |
| Semi-rural and smallholding households | 10–15% | RM15–40 | Weekly, market days | Hardware, agricultural supply, provision, workshops |
| Destination or premium trade | <3% | — | Goes to Johor Jaya or Mount Austin | There is no destination pull in Ulu Tiram. Do not model one. |
Ethnic composition
2022 citizen electoral roll for the P.158 Tebrau 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.
Tebrau is a Malay-plurality seat on the roll (46.9% Malay and Bumiputera against 38.9% Chinese), even though the eastern shophouse strips read as visibly Chinese-Malaysian on the ground. Both things are true: the resident base is mixed and Malay-leaning, while the evening F&B trade on streets like Mount Austin skews Chinese. If you are choosing between halal and non-halal, halal keeps the whole catchment; non-halal wins the night but gives up roughly half the daytime base.
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 | RM1,500–6,500 | Anchor F&B, retail, clinic, salon |
| 1st floor | RM700–2,400 | Studio, tuition, spa, private dining |
| 2nd floor | RM500–1,800 | Back office, storage, co-working |
| Whole block | RM2,800–9,500 | Multi-floor F&B, medical, corporate |
| Asset | Asking range | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|
| Shophouse, intermediate | RM750k–1.5M | 4.3–5.3% |
| Shophouse, corner | RM1.4M–2.1M | 4.3–5.3% |
| Reference: — recorded transactions at a median of — and — per sq ft (no published commercial transaction series — asking prices only). 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.
- Micro-catchments with little direct competition. You may be the only operator in your category for two kilometres.
- Trunk-road through traffic. A second customer source residential townships do not have.
- The cheapest entry inside MBJB. RM750,000 for an intermediate unit.
- Housing growth arriving now. JB’s residential frontier is currently moving through here.
- No published transaction data. We could not retrieve a commercial series for Ulu Tiram. Every price here is an asking price — commission a valuation.
- There is no single market here. Rents run from RM1,500 to RM6,500 because the clusters are genuinely different places. Price the cluster, not the district.
- No destination pull whatsoever. Nobody drives to Ulu Tiram for anything. Every customer already lives, works or drives past.
- Thin, dispersed footfall. A cluster may serve only a few hundred households. Count them before you underwrite.
- Johor Jaya and Mount Austin take the spend that matters. Twelve to fifteen minutes away with far more choice.
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: Ulu Tiram 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 | 14,000 | The Malaysian “2 + 1 + ½” convention, payable before you touch the unit. |
| Stamp duty on the tenancy | 192 (1 yr) / 576 (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 | 1,200 | 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 | 254,000 – 574,000 | 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 Ulu Tiram 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.