Eric Lim Chin Heng
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) president Eric Lim Chin Heng believes the Malaysian property market is set to gradually improve in the years ahead through to 2020.
“The property market may have bottomed out last year with transaction volumes hitting the lowest point since 2012, amounting to 311,824 transactions in 2017. We envisage that the market will continue experiencing ‘confidence gaining growth’ as fundamentals improve under the new government.
“Real estate investors, who have been playing an important part in the property market’s growth, have been on the side lines for many years now and are looking forward to coming back to the market.
“We also foresee the implementation of new policies by the government to boost the property market. Two major events include plans to introduce and manage the supply of affordable housing and the forthcoming budget which will be a test for the new government in tackling the woes of the property industry,” Lim said.
To help spur further confidence building, MIEA will be focusing the content of their Continuous Development Programmes (CDP), which is accredited by the Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers (BOVAEP), towards empowering the 18,000 active members of the real estate fraternity with new knowledge and improve skills with an emphasis on professionalism and integrity.
The Continuous Development Programme is an annual training programme required by BOVAEP to ensure that Real Estate Negotiators (REN) are trained to be relevant in the work they do. This will enable RENs to continue practicing for the coming year, allowing for renewal of their REN tags.
Eric added that MIEA has been proactive in addressing the needs of the real estate fraternity and it was decided that CDP programme courses developed by MIEA would focus on skills development, appealing to both the new and experienced real estate negotiators to enhance their ability to serve clients more effectively.
“We want to prepare and provide opportunities to our Real Estate Negotiators to be able to power through a challenging market and are prepared to reap the benefits when the market is expected to start picking up again in 2019,” Lim said.
Some of the speakers that MIEA has specifically chosen to lead its CDP programmes include industry heavyweights such as MIEA President Elect and board member Lim Boon Ping, MIEA vice president Kelvin Yip, MIEA past president Siva Shanker, Carey Real Estate managing director Nixon Paul, MIEA secretary general and SK Brothers Realty general manager Chan Ai Cheng, and BOVAEP Real Estate Agent of the Year 2016 recipient Soma Sundram.
The CDP programme will be held three times a week until end December 2018 to cater for all Negotiators.
“I continue to stress the importance of our CDP programmes in growing the skills and professionalism of the real estate fraternity.
“Given that CDP participation is also a requirement of maintaining the accredited status of Real Estate Negotiators (RENs), we will be bringing our CDP programmes nationally to Perak, Penang, Selangor, KL, Johor the east coast of peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah and Sarawak,” Lim added.