KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — Malaysia has benefitted from changes in Chinese International commercial real estate investment, which has markedly shifted towards Malaysia and other South-east Asian countries, especially Indonesia and Thailand, according to a new report released today by global real estate technology company Juwai IQI.

The report said that Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor emerged as the top destinations for Chinese investors in Malaysia.

Co-founder and group chief executive officer Kashif Ansari said Johor has a relatively developed economy and proximity to Singapore.

“Together with its neighbour, Johor is part of a trans-national metropolitan area of about six million people. We expect increasing investment in Johor as the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) link to Singapore approaches its 2026 completion.

“Juwai IQI forecasts 50,000 additional residents could be living cross-border lifestyles by 2030, which would provide a significant uplift to the demand for commercial real estate,” he said in a statement today.

Kashif said Johor’s Singapore links are already the basis for much Chinese investment in the state, and this investment will increase.

It said the RTS link would lead to more spillover investment from Singapore, attracting more Singaporeans and Chinese seeking the higher returns, lifestyle and affordability that Johor offers.

“The next most popular destinations for Chinese commercial property investors are Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia’s largest urban and business hub.

“Malaysia first became a top-five destination for Chinese commercial property investors in 2022. Achieving the third-ranked position like it has this year is unprecedented.

“Looking forward, we don’t believe global economic uncertainties will prevent Malaysia from achieving gross domestic product growth of 4.7 per cent in 2023,” he added.

Kashif said that Malaysia would increasingly attract more investment, and its initiatives to reduce red tape and grow the economy would support this trend.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, China, after Singapore, is Malaysia’s second-largest export market, with a total of RM16.7 billion in March 2023, about 13 per cent of all exports.

“China accounts for 20.5 per cent of imports, worth RM21.2 billion in March,” it said. — Bernama