Johor

Yes, but only above two different price floors: RM1,000,000 for a strata unit and RM2,000,000 for a landed home. Most buyers only know the first number and get caught by the second — Sanubari Phase 3 at Bandar Dato' Onn tops out at RM1,935,000 on its advertising permit, RM65,000 short of the landed floor, so not one house in it qualifies.

The test is applied per unit, at the price written into your sale and purchase agreement — not to the project, and not to the developer's advertised from-price. Above the price you still need written state consent, Kebenaran Pindah Milik, from the Johor state authority before the transfer can be registered, and the title will carry a Sekatan Kepentingan restriction in interest.

One definition catches people out: foreign interest includes Malaysian permanent residents. Holding PR does not move you to the citizen side of the line.

3% of the purchase price or RM30,000, whichever is higher — and it belongs to Johor alone. Neither Kuala Lumpur nor Selangor charges anything equivalent, so do not carry this figure to another state.

Three variations matter. A serviced apartment bought below RM1,000,000 carries a minimum levy of RM50,000 rather than RM30,000. Industrial property is charged at 4% with no minimum, and the 8% non-citizen stamp duty does not apply to industrial at all. Agreements signed and lodged before 29 August 2025 fall under the earlier rate of 2% or RM20,000.

The levy falls due on state approval and sits on top of the flat 8% stamp duty that has applied to non-citizens buying residential property since 1 January 2026. Budget both before you commit to anything.

Mostly freehold. Of the 91 Johor developments verified on this site, 63 carry a freehold statement I can point to in developer material or a statutory permit disclosure, 6 are leasehold, and 22 have no tenure statement published by anyone.

That ratio describes this list rather than the Johor market as a whole. It reflects which projects I have worked through, though southern Johor does genuinely hold more freehold land than most of the peninsula.

Freehold does not make you eligible. The price floor and the state consent apply to a freehold title exactly as they apply to a leasehold one, and a foreign-owned Johor title carries the restriction in interest endorsement either way.

Fewer than you would expect — at least 12 of the 91 verified here publish a full price band whose ceiling sits below RM1,000,000, which means not one unit is open to a non-citizen, on any floor, in any stack, at any point in the project's life. The lowest published price across the whole list is RM244,000.

I write at least deliberately. Several more publish only a from-price, and many publish no price at all, so their ceiling cannot be tested against RM1,000,000 from public sources. The real number is higher than 12; it is not lower.

Here is the consequence almost nobody prices in: the floor applies to your buyer when you sell. Buy at RM1.05 million, watch the market soften, and you cannot sell to another foreigner at RM950,000 — that transaction is not permitted. Your exit is restricted to Malaysian buyers, or to a foreign buyer above the floor.

Today it is the queue that decides, not the distance. The Causeway is widely reported as carrying on the order of 300,000 travellers a day, and neither government publishes a single authoritative count, so treat any precise figure quoted at you with suspicion. A property 3 km from the crossing and one 15 km from it can produce the same morning.

The RTS Link is not open. As at 5 August 2026 it is not carrying passengers; systems testing is targeted to finish by the end of 2026 and passenger service is targeted for January 2027. MRT Corp's published specification is a 4 km shuttle between Bukit Chagar and Woodlands North with a journey of about six minutes, 10,000 passengers per hour per direction, and immigration for both countries co-located at the departure station so you clear once.

Six minutes is the train, not your commute. Door to door is the walk to the station, the clearance queue, the ride, and the walk at the other end. Of the 91 Johor projects here, 46 have a distance to Bukit Chagar I can source and 10 of those sit under one kilometre. That walking band is where the RTS genuinely changes the arithmetic; a 15 km address does not become a rail address because a brochure prints the station name.

Completed unsold stock. NAPIC's first quarter 2026 figures record 9,972 unsold completed serviced apartment units in Johor and a residential overhang of 3,852. The serviced apartment number is the largest of any state, and serviced apartments are exactly what most new Johor launches are.

Completed unsold stock caps both price and rent, and it clears slowly. On resale your competition is not the next launch down the road; it is the other owners in your own building.

Then the exit costs. Real property gains tax for a non-citizen is 30% on a disposal within five years and 10% from the sixth year, with no zero band at any holding period. Foreign buyers typically obtain 60% to 70% margin of finance where a citizen can reach 90%. None of this is an argument for staying out of Johor. It is an argument for buying on a rent you have verified yourself, and for negotiating rather than accepting the list price.