Bigger role for service providers

The Star 19/04/2004 BY ANGIE NG

THE robust run-up in the property sector in the past one year has spawned more rapid growth among many other businesses and service providers including suppliers of building materials, architect firms, surveyors and property valuers, property consultants and real estate agents.

Practitioners of these specialised professions have become closely integrated with the property and construction industry and their role will take on greater importance with the advent of technology and greater market sophistication.

Surveyors, who are grouped into four broad categories of practice – land surveyors, quantity surveyors, property consultants and valuers, and building surveyors – have become more multi-disciplined and now provide a broad spectrum of services to their clientele who include property developers, investors, financial institutions and fund managers.

Institution of Surveyors, Malaysia (ISM) president Ong See Lian said quite a number of surveyors are heading property development companies as they are armed with the necessary skills to understand the intricacies of the business and the numbers involved.

“The qualification and practical training received by the surveying fraternity is highly regarded and will prepare them for a wide spectrum of management capability in various disciplines,” he said in an interview with StarBiz.

Among the prominent valuers are Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Wahab Maskan, Sunway City Bhd (SunCity) managing director Datuk C.K. Wong and Perdana Park City Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Lee Liam Chye.

Ong, who is a quantity surveyor, said with the growing importance of the property and construction sectors to the country's economy, there was room for more surveying practitioners to promote a higher level of proficiency and professionalism.

“We want to introduce more professionalism in the broad property sector by getting involved in a more proactive way. For example, in property management, ISM's stand is that only those qualified with tertiary education in property management can become property managers.”

To bring all the practitioners under a common umbrella, the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Real Estate Agents will set up a register for those who manage properties for a fee to be registered.

John Loh & Associates principal John S.C. Loh said quantity surveyors, property consultants and valuers provide the big picture in terms of a project development and developers who had these professionals in their team could look forward to better earnings and higher value for their shareholders.

“The field is very wide and surveyors have a lot to contribute to further promote the growth of the industry. In fact, property valuers and consultants will make very good development and project managers as their role is to ensure prompt project completion as well as budget and quality control,” added Loh, who will be taking over the ISM helm from Ong in June.

Quantity surveyors have also moved up the value chain by offering cost savings options for development projects, which will result in faster delivery and lower project costs.

According to ReGroup Associates Sdn Bhd managing director Allan Soo, with the monumental changes that have taken place in the property industry, the world of real estate agents, managers, consultants and valuers has become “virtually unrecognisable” over the last decade.

“The functions we now perform are so much more diverse that we need a string of suffixes to describe our trade adequately,” Soo, who is a property consultant and valuer, said.

The next century would demand even more of the profession as information becomes more accessible via the Internet and clients have greater expectations from their advisers.

“Real estate consultants play a very direct and active role in adding value at the decision making stage and as the industry continues to evolve, these professionals will be called upon more often to be strategic planners rather than mere salesmen or researchers.”

The role of property managers has also expanded from being merely property caretakers to become asset managers who are financially driven and keep track of the costing and revenue of the assets.

Soo said the new challenge was for valuers to assume more of the role of skilled asset value advisers in a very dynamic market and this required sophistication in the breadth and depth of the valuer's knowledge and exposure to the industry.

“It will require his ability to assess a portfolio in relation to the dynamics of demand and supply. The valuer will be closer to the decision making process, whether it be in the business of development, acquisition, refurbishment, disposal or lease renewal,” he said.

With the growing competition in the market, the role of property researchers has also taken on greater importance. The sector alone has an estimated annualised income of some RM20mil.

Property researchers have also found a niche in their practice as research on property becomes a constant process of collecting and reading data.

To stay competitive, developers have accepted that product development input is a vital part of an analysis and decision making process.