CapitaLand’s REIT has built a Johor factory portfolio — RM99mil bought, RM220.8mil more contracted at i-TechValley

While attention in Johor industrial property goes to data centres and the Johor–Singapore Special Economic Zone headlines, a Malaysian REIT has quietly assembled a Johor factory portfolio — and it is now committed to more than tripling it.

CapitaLand Malaysia Trust (CLMT), the Bursa-listed REIT best known for Gurney Plaza and Queensbay Mall, completed two Johor industrial acquisitions in 2025 and signed a third, much larger, deal in December 2025.

What is already bought and paid for

Senai Airport City — RM72 million, three properties. Announced in February 2025 and completed during that year, CLMT bought three freehold industrial properties from Rainbow Entity Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Bursa-listed Gromutual Berhad. Total built-up area is 183,785 sq ft across three single-storey detached factories, each with an annexed two-storey office block, all completed in Q1 2025. One property came with a seven-year lease to a life sciences company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market, at an annual gross rent of RM5.1 million with built-in rent escalations. The projected first-year gross yield was about 7.1%.

Nusajaya Tech Park, Iskandar Puteri — RM27 million, three properties. Announced in 2024 and also completed in 2025, these three freehold industrial factories are fully leased. CLMT lists them as the "Iskandar Puteri Facilities".

Together with an automated logistics facility in Selangor bought for RM180 million, those six Johor properties formed part of a seven-asset, RM279 million industrial and logistics push completed in 2025.

The big one: RM220.8 million at i-TechValley

On 22 December 2025 CLMT entered a forward purchase agreement for five high-specification industrial facilities at i-TechValley, in the Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters (SiLC) at Iskandar Puteri. The sellers are Greenhill SILC Sdn Bhd and Pentagon Land Sdn Bhd, both wholly owned by Bursa-listed AME Elite Consortium Berhad.

• Price: RM220.8 million — a 0.6% discount to the independent valuation of RM222.1 million by Nawawi Tie Leung as at 2 December 2025
• Total built-up area: 524,077 sq ft — five single-storey detached factories with two-storey office components and ancillary buildings
• Specification: high floor loading, generous ceiling heights, loading bays with dock levellers, in a gated and guarded 170-acre park with 24-hour security, CCTV, RFID vehicle access and high-speed broadband
• Completion: progressively from Q1 2027 to Q1 2028, with income expected to contribute from financial year 2027
• Projected first-year gross yield: about 7.3%
• CLMT pays only a 10% deposit now, with the balance on completion; proforma gearing rises from 39.8% to 42.2%

Note the distinction, because it matters: this is a signed forward purchase with a deposit paid on buildings that do not exist yet, not a completed acquisition and not a mere expression of interest. The Senai and Nusajaya properties are bought and generating rent; the i-TechValley five are contracted and being built.

Once everything completes, CLMT's Johor portfolio will be 11 industrial assets totalling about 781,937 sq ft, lifting industrial and logistics from 7.9% to 11.5% of assets under management.

"Johor's industrial market continues to benefit from the Johor–Singapore Special Economic Zone and major infrastructure upgrades such as the Rapid Transit System Link," said Yong Su-Lin, CEO of CapitaLand Malaysia REIT Management. "With these high-specification facilities, CLMT is well positioned to capture long-term growth from regional manufacturing expansion and supply chain realignment."

The properties on paper — titles, lots and addresses

The Bursa filings identify every parcel, which is where the detail worth reading actually sits.

Senai Airport City — RM72 million (SPA dated 5 February 2025)

Vendor: Rainbow Entity Sdn Bhd (420885-D), a Gromutual subsidiary. Postal address: Nos. 17A, 17B and 17C, Jalan SAC 2/2, Senai Airport City, 81400 Senai, Johor. All three parcels are freehold and sit in Mukim Tebrau, Daerah Johor Bahru:

• H.S.(D) 625145, PTD 209755 — 12,869 sq m of land, 83,725 sq ft built-up, 8 loading bays
• H.S.(D) 625146, PTD 209756 — 8,113 sq m, 50,030 sq ft, 4 loading bays
• H.S.(D) 625147, PTD 209757 — 8,113 sq m, 50,030 sq ft, 4 loading bays

Total built-up 183,785 sq ft, ceiling height 9–11 m, floor loading 2 tonnes per sq m. Land use category is Perusahaan/Perindustrian, with an express condition limiting use to medium industry. The title restriction bars sale or transfer to a non-citizen or foreign company without State Authority consent, and at announcement the parcels carried a charge to Hong Leong Bank. CLMT paid a 10% deposit of RM7.2 million, with RM64.8 million due within three months of the SPA turning unconditional.

Nusajaya Tech Park, Iskandar Puteri — RM27 million (announced 5 February 2024)

Vendor: Nusajaya Tech Park Sdn Bhd. Two addresses, three factory units, all freehold:

• Nos. 2 and 4, Jalan Teknologi Perintis 1/1, Taman Teknologi Nusajaya, 79200 Iskandar Puteri — a semi-detached pair on 1.30 acres, 42,048 sq ft built-up, leased to Edmund Optics Malaysia Sdn Bhd
• No. 12, Jalan Teknologi Perintis 1/3 — a detached factory on 1.09 acres, 32,094 sq ft, leased to Altek Medical Sdn Bhd

Total 74,142 sq ft. The price was struck below the independent valuation of RM28.2 million by Nawawi Tie Leung as at 15 January 2024. Annual rental income is RM2.0 million for a first-year yield of about 7.3%, on six-year leases with a further six-year renewal option, rent escalations of 2–6% a year and a WALE of 5.2 years. The individual title numbers were not published in the release.

i-TechValley, SiLC — RM220.8 million (five SPAs dated 22 December 2025)

Vendors: Greenhill SILC Sdn Bhd (1369268-A) on three parcels and Pentagon Land Sdn Bhd (1369008-V) on two, both wholly owned by AME Elite. All five parcels are freehold and lie in Mukim Pulai, Johor, in Phase 3 of i-TechValley:

• Plot 6 — Geran 587915, Lot 169183: 12,180 sq m of land, 96,480 sq ft built-up, RM39.00 million, completion certificate estimated March 2027
• Plot 26 — Geran 587951, Lot 169203: 15,298 sq m, 118,370 sq ft, RM50.15 million, estimated April 2027
• Plot 1 — Geran 587910, Lot 169178: 19,467 sq m, 149,389 sq ft, RM63.65 million, estimated June 2027
• Plot 37 — Geran 587962, Lot 169214: 14,843 sq m, 117,950 sq ft, RM49.30 million, estimated November 2027
• Plot 62 — H.S.(D) 635859, PTD 227212: 6,825 sq m, 41,889 sq ft, RM18.70 million, estimated January 2028

Total built-up 524,077 sq ft, ceiling height 9 m, floor loading 20 kN per sq m. The parcels are unencumbered, and CLMT has paid a 10% deposit of RM22.08 million with RM198.72 million due on completion.

The restrictions-in-interest differ plot by plot, and that is the most interesting line in the whole filing. Plots 6 and 1 carry none. Plots 26 and 37 are Bumiputera-reserved land — once title passes to a Bumiputera individual or company it cannot afterwards be sold, leased or transferred to a non-Bumiputera party without State Authority consent. Plot 62 cannot be transferred at all until the public-amenity infrastructure serving the factory area has begun construction under an approved plan.

What this tells you about the Johor industrial market

The price-per-sq-ft ladder is the clearest number in this whole story. Divide each price by the built-up area the filings state, and CLMT's own buying tells you what has happened to modern factory space:

• Valdor Logistics Hub, Penang (2022) — 344,429 sq ft for RM80.0 million, about RM232 per sq ft
• Nusajaya Tech Park, Johor (2024) — 74,142 sq ft for RM27.0 million, about RM364 per sq ft
• Senai Airport City, Johor (2025) — 183,785 sq ft for RM72.0 million, about RM392 per sq ft
• i-TechValley, SiLC, Johor (signed 2025, delivered 2027–28) — 524,077 sq ft for RM220.8 million, about RM421 per sq ft

These are not like-for-like — Valdor is older warehousing on 12.6 acres bought at a 2022 price, while i-TechValley is high-specification factory space that has not been built yet. But the direction is unambiguous, and the same buyer set every one of those numbers.

The 20-minute Tuas number is the whole thesis. CapitaLand states plainly that i-TechValley sits within a 20-minute drive of the Tuas Checkpoint, and names that as the appeal to Singapore-linked occupiers. Johor industrial land near the crossings is not being priced as Malaysian factory land any more; it is being priced as overflow capacity for Singapore, which is a different and higher number.

Forward purchases are the tell. A REIT paying a deposit for buildings that will not be finished until 2027 and 2028 is a REIT that expects competition for finished stock to be worse later. When institutions start buying ahead of construction, it is because they no longer believe they can buy completed, tenanted assets at these yields in two years' time.

7.1% to 7.3% is the yield benchmark to hold on to. Those are the projected first-year gross yields on the Senai and i-TechValley deals — the return an institutional buyer with cheap debt is prepared to accept on modern Johor factory space. Anyone valuing a factory in that corridor now has a public reference point.

And note who is selling. Gromutual and AME Elite are listed Johor developers building industrial product and selling it to REITs. That is a maturing market: developers build to an institutional specification, institutions buy the finished income. It is the same pipeline that has existed in Singapore for years, arriving in Johor.

For Penang readers, the comparison is direct. CLMT's Penang logistics asset, the Valdor Logistics Hub at Sungai Jawi, cost RM80 million for about 344,000 sq ft in 2022. The same REIT is now paying RM220.8 million for 524,077 sq ft in Johor, on buildings not yet built.

*Photos: courtesy of CapitaLand Malaysia Trust.*