JOHOR BARU, June 13 — A total of 11,512 units of serviced apartments costing RM500,000-and-above around the city and Iskandar Puteri are unsold, said state Housing and Local Government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor.

However, he said the developers with the unsold residences have started to receive positive feedback from foreign buyers, especially from Singapore where house prices in the republic are reported to be among the most expensive in Asia Pacific this year.

"Local property buyers do not need to worry about this because the housing policy of Johor has stipulated that only properties worth RM1 million-and-above are offered to foreigners, including buyers from Singapore,” he said after the Public Draw for Rumah Transit Bangsa Johor (RTBJ) at Taman Kempas Utama here today.

He said as many as 50 developers will participate in the Johor Housing Expo which will be held at Angsana Johor Baru Mall here for four days starting July 27, thereby helping the overhang of unsold built homes in the state.

On May 6, Mohd Jafni was reported to have said that 80 per cent of unsold residences in the state involved serviced apartments located around Johor Baru and Iskandar Puteri.

Meanwhile, Mohd Jafni said it is estimated that 1,000 more RTBJ units will be built by the state government in the next five years following the RTBJ pilot project at Taman Kempas Utama which received an overwhelming response of nearly 500 applications.

He said through the RTBJ (rent-to-own) programme, selected individuals can rent for RM650 a month with RM460 deducted as monthly rental while RM190 will be saved for five years where the accumulated savings will be used as a deposit to buy a new house. — Bernama