Cross border smart partnerships

Posted on | January 14, 2008

By THE STAR

MALAYSIAN Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) will continue to support local real estate agents to set up operations overseas, according to president K. Soma Sundram.

“We will facilitate smart partnerships between local and foreign real estate agents for possible cross-business cooperation,” he told reporters after the opening of the Malaysian Annual Real Estate Convention (MAREC 08) in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

Soma Sundram (left) presenting a memento to Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting at the opening of the convention

MAREC 08 convention chairman Siva Shanker said an increasing number of real estate agents were setting up branches overseas to offer consultancy in Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Singapore.

“We hope to equip the 400 delegates of the convention with knowledge on the real estate market trends in Asean as well as providing them with opportunities for networking,” said Siva.

He said the three-day convention was aimed at promoting awareness on “industry trends in regional markets” among certified real estate negotiators, negotiators and support staff of real estate agencies.

The key topics of the convention, themed Regionalising The Malaysian Market- The Reality of Getting There, include property market trends and industry key business drivers.

According to Siva, the local real estate market has shown an upside trend thanks to the increasing demand for very high-end properties in Mont’Kiara, Damansara and especially in the KLCC vicinity, which were transacted at a premium of 30% to 40%.

He said the upside trend would persist for at least the next two years.

In addition, low-end property had also shown a stable purchasing trend following the green light to withdraw from the Employees Provident Fund for mortgage repayment, said Siva.

He noted that more than 70% to 80% of low-end property owners were purchasing for their own stay.

Meanwhile, the key driver in the current local property market was the “all-time favourite” semi-detached homes, particularly in the gated communities, he said.

Opening the convention, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said the level of professionalism among real estate agents had reached new heights since he gave a speech in 2006 about professionalism within the fraternity.

He applauded MIEA for initiating real estate negotiator courses, saying that the negotiators were the ones who dealt directly with purchasers and vendors as the front-liners while estate agents were busy managing their firms.

Ong said the scope for estate agents in the coming years was “wide and bright” due to the development of new corridors such as the Iskandar Development Region.

He noted that as of the second quarter of 2007, there were existing stock of 3.95 million residential units, 320,570 shop units, 8.12 million sq metres (sq m) of retail spaces in 596 commercial complexes and about 14.68 million sq m office space.

In conjunction with the opening ceremony of MAREC, OCBC Bank (M) Bhd presented RM10,000 to MIEA for its year-long collaboration with the latter to roll out two-day training programmes every month.

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