Oversupply in Iskandar Malaysia may lead to fall in prices: Lawrence Wong

AN oversupply of overseas property could lead to a fall in prices down the road, said Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) board member Lawrence Wong in Parliament on Monday.

He shared that there are some 336,000 new private residential units in the pipeline in Iskandar Malaysia, which he noted is more than the total number of private homes in Singapore.

Mr Wong was speaking on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is the chairman of MAS.

An oversupply of properties could also make it difficult for owners to find tenants, said Mr Wong, who also cited reports in Iskandar and Johor that highlighted aggressive land banking by developers.

In Singapore, the banking system does not have a significant exposure to these overseas property loans. Such loans account for just 2 per cent of the housing loan portfolios of the key mortgage lenders in Singapore, added Mr Wong.