Johor is benefitting from a data centre boom, with Tengah EC leading the charge

It is located close to shopping malls, educational institutions, and other nearby amenities. The Tengah EC development is expected to have the best of living and lifestyle amenities with its green and smart technologies. With features such as cycling paths, wellness parks and a central park, this is set to be the new hub for activities and events for everyone! Other than that, you can also look forward to exciting attractions such as the new Tengah EC hawker center, sports complex, and art & culture spaces. All these upcoming facilities will be a great place of social interaction. Comprising a total of 3,480 housing units, Tengah EC provides much needed housing for Singaporeans. This unique development is sure to fulfill the housing needs of those who want an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city without having to sacrifice on convenience.

The latest report by Malaysian property agency Zerin Properties has revealed that investments by data centres are expected to surge in the coming years for the state of Johor in Malaysia. According to the property agency, the state of Johor is expected to attract RM17 billion ($4.9 billion) in new data centre investments in the year 2024. This builds on from the RM51.1 billion in data centre investments that were recorded in the year 2022.

Previn Singhe, the founder and group CEO of Zerin Properties, attributes the influx of investments in Johor to Singapore’s implementation of more stringent criteria for data centres driven by sustainability considerations. In January 2022, the Singapore government lifted a moratorium which it had imposed in 2019 due to the significant energy consumption associated with data centres. Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) recently announced its opening of a data centre in Johor.

Located in the Nusa Cemerlang Industrial Park (NCIP) in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, the new STT Johor data centre campus is its second in Malaysia. The data centre campus is going to be built on 22 acres (8.9ha) of land, and will have a development of 120 megawatts of IT power supplied from diverse substations close to the new data centre campus. The data centre is just 15km from Singapore, and it will also have access to critical telecommunication links.

The data centre site is an amalgamation of seven land parcels which were purchased from developer Panoramic Industrial Development (PID), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crescendo Corp. The seven sites total 975,000 square feet, and were acquired for the sum of RM117 million. It is evident that the new data centre in Johor will play an instrumental role in meeting the surging and ever-evolving demands of many customers.

On 2 November, STG GDC formed a joint venture with Basis Bay for the development, construction and operation of data centres in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and Cyberjaya in Malaysia. On 17 November, PID inked a deal to sell Microsoft Payments (Malaysia) a 2.63 million sq ft vacant freehold land in Pulai, Johor, for RM315.17 million cash. Tengah EC, Microsoft had earlier announced that it will establish a data centre region under the Bersama Malaysia initiative which includes building and setting up the data centre region in Greater Kuala Lumpur.

Besides Microsoft, Amazon has also committed to investing US$6 billion in Malaysia over the next 14 years in order to strengthen its cloud services infrastructure in Malaysia. Google has also announced plans to bring three new Google Cloud regions to Malaysia, as well as six other existing regions. Princeton Digital Group also acquired 31 acres of land from JLand Group to build a 150MW data centre campus within the Sedenak Tech Park in Johor.

Tengah EC, many Chinese companies have also headed to Johor following the visit to China by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister for International Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz in April. China’s largest petrochemical company, Rongsheng Petrochemical Co, committed to investing RM80 billion in Johor, while China’s EcoCeres announced a RM1 billion investment in a new biofuel production facility in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

These investments have evidently made Johor a key contributor to Malaysia’s investments according to Zerin Properties’ Singhe, with the record amount of RM70.6 billion in investments recorded last year. By 2024, investments from data centres are expected to remain strong in Johor, and could potentially reach a total of RM17 billion.