More Condo Project Signed for Iskandar

"Medini Iskandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Qingdao Zhuoyuan Investment Holding's Square Stone Holdings Sdn Bhd to build high-end condominium with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of RM2.6bil.

The high-rise property proposed to be known as Medini International starts from an average price of RM750 psf targeting buyers from Singapore, China, Malaysia, Japan and Korea". Read more on the Star article.

It definitely feels like the Iskandar bubble is growing bigger, prices are sky rocketing and close to matching KL prices. Let's hope prices do not go too crazy!

Danga Bay

Danga Bay: Malaysia’s Premier Waterfront City, this is what we've read and heard about. The area is directly across the water from Singapore and is apparently set to be a premier waterfront development which includes upscale waterfront residential, retail and restaurants complex (something like Clarke Quay + Sentosa I imagine). It covers an area of approximately 450-acres. We visited the Danga Bay Marina & harbour and a small amusement park which was filled with families and their children in the weekend.



From what I have read, the government has a very ambitious plan for this area. We've also spoken to an Australian company who's developing high end luxury waterfront residential complex (a house unit will cost. est. SGD1.2M).

These are the under-construction developments listed in the Danga Bay official site:
1. Danga Island - 152 units of villas
2. Iskandar & Oakwood Residence (Apartments & Service residences)
3. Phase 1A - an area which will include 5 star hotel, International Convention Centre
Office Blocks & more apartments and a Water Theme Park.

I'd say that it's still quite a long way to go to reach the vision of this area but there are a lot of constructions in the area (construction of a highway for example - picture on the left) so let's hope that the vision is being carried out and will be completed soon in the near future.


More information can be found in: www.dangabay.com

There's also a news article recently on latest project in Danga Bay by a Singaporean company: http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20101206184346/Article/

Food we've tried in Danga Bay area:

J.T.L Ikan Bakar

Our first trip to Danga Bay. We found this "hawker" style Ikan Bakar (Grilled fish) eatery in the Danga Bay area (apologies I cannot remember the exact location). We ordered ayam penyet, ikan bakar, fried prawns and kangkong belacan. The food was quite good but the price was not reasonable. We paid about RM110. A local couple heard about our bill and told us that we were overcharged. I confronted the lady boss who replied that was their usual pricing. I wouldn't recommend going there as I felt quite ripped off. I'm sure there are many other more reasonably priced ikan bakar stalls out there in Johor.



Lazio Italian Restaurant & Cafe

We wanted to try Rosmarino Italian Restaurant at Jalan Damai, Taman Sri Setia, but after trying to find this restaurant for 2 hours (thanks to our not very realiable Garmin GPS system), we gave up and headed to Danga Bay instead. We tried the Italian restaurant, Lazio located at Danga Bay Marina.

We chose to sit outside (alfresco) next to the harbour. Though not the most authentic Italian restaurant, the food was quite good and the price was quite reasonable.



It usually takes us around 40 minutes to drive from East Ledang to Danga Bay.