Many Singapore households are feeling rich with their home prices continue to rise over the past many years. It has risen until the government has to step in a few times to slap with some strict regulations and extra fees, just to slow down the price increase. It’s going slow down the growth, but not going to reduce the prices though.

However, what I would like many to ponder is, even if your HDB house is going to be valued at $1.5m, you have unlock the value to realise it. However if you sell your house in this environment, you are going to buy another expensive house, pay more fees to the government and for renovations. Is it worth it? If buying a condo or private property is your dream all along, go do it and sell your HDB. However in doing so, you only have a house to stay, and the main bulk of your net worth is going to continue to be locked up in your house. The funny thing is, your house is not an asset, unless you can make it produce an income. The increasing valuation of your house only make you feel happier, but it doesn’t improve your cashflow. If you are looking into financial freedom and retirement or F.I.R.E, and whatever it is, cashflow is a very important function. Not valuation.

That being said, with the Johor Bahru–Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) about to on operation in Jan 2027, I think it’s actually a viable option for Singapore residents to consider staying Johor Bahru when retiring. At the same time, you hold your home in Singapore, and rent it out. It’s a choice to rent it out partially or fully. Let’s coin this strategy JBMy2ndHome, where you buy a home in JB and keep your house in Singapore. Yes, and the house you can buy in JB is going to be much bigger and more luxury than the 2nd house you going to purchase in Singapore. It’s an upgrade in terms of quality of life if you think this way.

I’m sure there are tons of articles and videos which talk about Johor Bahru, the good and the bad, but I’d like to focus more on unlocking our home equity, in particular if majority of your assets is derived from your one and only home. As such, we shall debate about the safety and security of Johor on other channel.

The reason why I thought this option is worth considering now is because of just 1 factor; connectivity. Of course, a common factor many people often use is also the financial arbitrage which one can enjoy; the 1:3 currency rate that Singapore dollar get to enjoy over the Ringgit, hence the lower cost of living in Malaysia. You are able to get a better quality of life, at half the cost at least.

The world has become more connected with the advances of technology. One can connect with their loved ones who stay overseas through social media. While we may not be connected that frequent physically, we become super connected virtually. Decades ago, you can only telephone your loved ones if they are stationed overseas. The bills can be hefty, and often, we make the call short. Today, you can talk for as long as you want as long as you have wifi, and we can even video call. These has definitely improved our connections between humans.

Next, with better infrastructure in the country, it become easier for us to commute from one place to the other. With technology, through an app, we can call a taxi easily and within minutes, a driver will appear. That being said, in my personal opinion, the RTS is going to massively change how people is going to commute between the 2 cities, Singapore and Johor Bahru. Can you imagine, there’s going to be little traffic jams across the causeway? With 2 checkpoints merged into 1 for passport clearance at the RTS, it seems like travel between the 2 cities will be a seamless process. Judging by the amount of investment spent on the infrastructure now and in future, it seems to me that things will only get better regarding the connectivity between the 2 cities.

In JB, you can easily afford a condo unit, or a landed house for a fraction of your house in Singapore. Let’s say you purchased a house for $1m ringgit in there, and I’m sure one can easily find such house there, with a decent security and close proximity to Singapore. Remember, with RTS, you can cross over to Singapore from your Johor house in less than 15mins. It really depends on where your Johor house is at. If you drive, there’s going be little or no traffic jam, and hence your timing of appointments can be predictable now. If you don’t drive, you may always grab from your JB home to Bukit Chagar, the station at JB which link it to Woodlands North Station for the RTS.

I’m not going to say the good and bad of staying in Johor at this post as I think you can take references from other sources. However, you can seriously buy a home there now, for staycation, and transit to staying in JB permanently when you reach financial freedom 15-20 years later. Meaning, instead of buying a 2nd property in Singapore, one can choose to buy their 2nd property in JB instead. The excess cashflow can then be deployed into liquid investments. Imagine, 15-20 years later, you have fully paid both home, and you can rent out the property in Singapore, and stay in JB instead. I won’t encourage one to sell though, as you want to keep your options open. In doing so, you would have unlocked the massive equity in your Singapore house, which contribute a huge part of your net worth.

Let’s take a look the following example of a couple, age 50, fully paid HDB flat worth more than $1m. The couple earns more than $8k a month, has $100k in liquid cash, and $200k in investment, and around $200k in CPF OA and SA account combined. They have 2 children age 19,20.

The above numbers is actually pretty conservative and hence reflect a typical middle class humbled family in Singapore.

Such a humbled family, if met up with a real estate agent, will likely be sold by them to sell their house and stay in a condo, which has perceived higher growth potential etc. Beware of the salesmanship of such agent. End of the day, what do this couple want? More wealth right? That’s why they buy that condo and sold off their HDB flat. Now they become indebted to bank, and still, cannot unlock the massive home equity in their condo.

However, perhaps, a wiser choice is to apply the JBMy2ndHome strategy. The couple buy a landed home or a spacious condo from a really reputable developer in JB. They pay for the house loan in Malaysia. For context, a landed home in JB can cost about MYR$1m for a terrace house, which is about SGD$300k. Hence the home loan you will be paying monthly is little. The couple can treat the house as a staycation home, until the children started working and have their own house, which is 10-15 years later. During this period, the couple’s HDB home continue to increase in value, their CPF money increase as well, and so is their investment. When it’s about time to transit to JB, rent out your HDB, and receive an extra $2500 on top of your CPF life and investment income. If your CPF life gives you both $3000, and investment gives a $2000, that’s a $7500 per month combined passive income. Your quality of life in retirement definitely will be a lot better, compared to the most common strategy of upgrading to a condo in Singapore or buying another private property in Singapore. It’s a method which will consolidate your assets, and making you cash rich, instead of assets rich, but cash poor.

In this case, I totally ignore the investment value of the property in JB. Well, you want to buy at a reputable area so that the value can hold, and not drop drastically. Remember, this house is for you to stay. It’s not an asset anyway. If the value increase, it’s a bonus anyway.

With improved connectivity due to the infrastructure support of RTS, Grab Taxi, and Public Transport between the 2 cities, if you stay in JB, it’s as good as commuting from Pasir Ris to Choa Chu Kang. That should be the way how one should embrace. That being said, this is not a poor man’s strategy, but is a strategy which every sound person should think about. It’s a strategy which can be highly adopted across the masses.

In summary, through JBMy2ndHome Strategy, one owns 2 properties, one in Singapore, and one in JB. The one in JB is for you to stay when you decide to retire, and the one in Singapore is for you to rent, hence unlocking that massive equity in your home. The one you stay in future, is purchased at a much lower cost, easily 80%-90% lower if you were to do an apple to apple comparison of the type of property in the 2 cities.

The world will only gets more connected, and in this case, Singapore-Johor Bahru will be even closer with the operation of RTS in Jan 2027. Keep your mind open, and do your own research. If you are keen to explore, hit me up and I’m happy to help.