Malaysia acts to cool property demand

[SINGAPORE] Chris Metcalf commutes for 45 minutes to Singapore each day from Iskandar, a region just over the border in Malaysia, to work as a lawyer at Clyde & Co LLP.

"It's too expensive to live in Singapore," said Mr Metcalf, who moved across the Johor Strait in June after finding he could no longer afford the island-state on a local salary and with four children. "We're selling a house in the UK and when we do we'll consider buying in Malaysia because it's definitely better value."

Malaysia is seeing the spillover from Singapore's four-year property boom and its subsequent efforts to cool the market.

Prices of homes at Horizon Hills, where Mr Metcalf now lives, have jumped almost threefold over the past five …