JOHOR BARU: Now is the best time for those looking to buy residential properties especially in Iskandar Malaysia.

Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) Johor chairman Datuk Steve Chong Yoon On said prices are expected to jump by between 5% and 10% in about a year.

He attributed the price increase to the weakening of the ringgit against major currencies over the past two years as well as the hike in land, building materials and labour costs.

“There is a slowdown in property transactions in Johor this year and we are expecting the property outlook in Iskandar Malaysia in 2017 to be more challenging,” Chong said in a press conference after attending the matchmaking meeting on building materials production cooperation between local and Chinese construction companies and builders associations.

They comprised Johor Master Builders Association, China Triumph International Engineering Group Co Ltd, Sinoma International Engineering Group Co Ltd, Jinhua Construction Materials Group and China Building Materials Federation.

“Developers in Iskandar Malaysia like in other parts of the country are cautiously monitoring the situation and will go for smaller launches for the next one to two years,” said Chong.

He said prospective buyers, especially first-timers, were also adopting a “wait and see” attitude and would only go for residential properties priced within their budget.

Chong advised the 128 developers with Johor Rehda to look at residential properties priced between RM300,000 and RM700,000 as demand for properties within the price range was still good.

“Market sentiments are not good and residential properties priced RM800,000 and above are finding it difficult to attract buyers,” he said.

On the cooperation between local and Chinese construction companies, Chong hoped local construction companies would be able to import more building materials from China.

He said the cooperation would benefit both parties and local companies would be able to buy cheaper but good quality building materials from China..

“We will try to get accreditation from Sirim for the Made-in-China building materials and with cheaper building materials, we could keep the prices of our finished products attractive to buyers,’’ said Chong.

China Building Materials Federation president Qiao Longde said it has 16,000 members from all over China which supply basic, middle and high-end building materials for infrastructure and property development projects recording a combined sales turnover of RM30bil yearly.