CBD Properties’ founder, Mr. Adrian Wang, took time off from his busy schedule to respond to us on several ‘hot’ issues in the property sector in Malaysia. Read on to find out more.
1. Q: What is your view on the proposed 80% mortgage cap by Bank Negara?
A: We believe this move will have a negative impact on the economy in general. The younger generation or new families will face difficulties in securing a home for themselves. It will also affect developers, agents, and purchasers in many ways. If Bank Negara decides to implement the 80% mortgage cap, they should impose it on higher risks properties and not across the board. There are many ways to cool down the market such as increasing the Base Lending Rate (BLR) and lowering Loan Margin for non owner-occupied properties. The Government should consider surrendering more land to build more medium-cost landed properties and apartments in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, and to speed up the processing of applications for development order and relevant authority approvals to reduce development cost.
2. Q: What is your property market outlook for the 4th quarter of this year?
A: We believe the property market outlook for the 4th quarter of this year to be still good. The primary market will continue to perform well, especially in prime locations such as Klang Valley, Penang, and Johor. Landed properties will see huge capital appreciation due to the limited stocks available, especially in prime areas. There will be an increase in demand for gated and guarded developments due to security concerns. Depending on locations, there will be challenges in the high-rise residential market due to large supply.
With the stability of the share market, strong Ringgit and upcoming elections, it will drive the market up. We are also seeing foreign funds coming back to Malaysia to acquire prime residential properties again, and we believe the momentum can be extended to 1st quarter 2011, provided there are no major changes in our government fiscal policies.
3. Q: What are the up-and-coming areas that property investors can focus on?
A: Based on the recent launches, we expect the Southern Region to be the next up and coming area. Locations such as Southern Puchong, Seri Kembangan, Cyberjaya, Setia Alam and Sungai Buloh (former Rubber Research Institute – Forest Reserve Land) will be areas where property investors can focus on because these areas still have plenty of land for development. With good accessibility and upcoming improved infrastructures, such as areas with new LRT lines, it will lead to growth in these locations. Besides that, I suggest investors should look into the secondary market in prime locations like KLCC, Mont Kiara and Damansara, whereby the secondary properties are selling below developers’ new launching price. The reason for this is oversupply and lower tenant rate, so it is a buyer’s market in these areas.
4. Q: How do you think the office sector will perform for the next 6 months? Do we have an oversupply in this sector?
A: The office market is expected to remain competitive due to many newly completed and refurbished buildings in good locations. Rental will remain flat and occupancy rates continue to move downwards in a cautious market due to uncertainties in the local and global economy. There is also a declining inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to set up new offices in Malaysia. However, mergers in the oil & gas industry, the recent issuance of new banking licenses and the liberalization of numerous sub-sectors in the service industry may help absorb the new supply. Offices with location near to amenities and LRT have higher demand and will continue to perform well.
5. Q: What is your view on EPF’s decision to invest in London commercial properties? Should they have invested earlier?
A: With the recent strengthening of ringgit and generally lower property valuations in UK, I believe EPF made a good move to invest in London commercial properties. As long as EPF’s investment is for long-term basis, it should be fine. By diversifying its property investment portfolio, it will give itself a more balanced portfolio and spread the risks over more developed markets besides Malaysia. Commercial properties with strong and long term tenancies offer potential for upsides, in terms of capital growth and attractive yields, upon market recovery. In summary, this is good exposure for EPF and the timing is right for them to enter this market.
6. Q: Should Malaysians look at investing in overseas properties to balance up their portfolio especially with the continuing uncertainties in the Malaysian economy?
A: Yes, we think Malaysians should consider investing in overseas properties to balance up their investment portfolio and spread the risk. We received encouraging responses during our previous launches on overseas projects. Many parents are now sending their children for education overseas. Instead of renting a place, the parents are considering the purchase of a property at the same time treating it as an investment. After the children graduate, they have the choice to rent it out or sell it for a profit. Most of our investors buy into overseas properties for long-term investment. Only then, will they see the capital appreciation. The preferred countries for investment include Singapore, Australia, UK, and Hong Kong.
7. Q: How is the response to your website in terms of traffic and leads? How much percentage of your transacted sales comes from your website?
A: Currently, our website, www.CBD.com.my has about 8,000 listings and our agents get leads and enquiries. With the good response, it motivates our agents to post more listings into the company website and best of all, it is free for our agents to use. We have about 2000 hits daily on the website. There are a few reasons why we encourage our agents to use CBD website as an alternative to promote their listings. First of all, the cost for advertising in the newspaper can be quite high. Besides that, due to busy schedules, the young generation who are IT savvy prefer to use the
Internet as a means to search for their preferred properties as they can see pictures of the property even before they view the site. It helps them to shortlist the ones that they are interested in. It also helps our agents to save time as the clients themselves have already done their homework.
8. Q: Please give us a brief profile of your company.
A: CBD Properties Sdn Bhd is one of Malaysia’s leading real estate companies since our establishment in 2007. We are a licensed Real Estate Agency registered with the Board of Valuers, Appraisers, and Estate Agents Malaysia and is a member of The Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA). Building on the principles of professionalism, reliability and progressiveness, our team is well recognized for their diligence, efficiency and effectiveness in providing real estate related services in handling the sale, purchase, lease, project marketing, corporate services, investment counseling of residential, commercial/retail, industrial, as well as corporate office space restructuring.
We subscribe to upholding and keeping to all standards of legally prescribed real estate practices. In our quest to provide services with an edge over others, we constantly sought to upgrade ourselves professionally. Our aspiration is to successfully be “Investing With You.” We currently have 6 branches throughout the Klang Valley: Damansara Utama (HQ), KL, Damansara Perdana, Sri Hartamas, Puchong, and Ara Damansara.
Some of our services include offering developers and mall owners our advice and recommendations based on our experience, clientele database and research on lifestyle characteristics, demographic trends, and trade area.
We also provide an international investment diversification option to avid investors. We have established connections with reputable realtors and developers from overseas to provide local investors choice international investment opportunities. We also manage auction bids and our subsidiary company, Poloair Consultancy (MM2H) Sdn Bhd is an authorized agent appointed by Tourism Malaysia to assist foreign citizens to apply for the Malaysia My Second Home Programme.
9. Q: What is your edge over other agencies?
A: Our Management Team comprises of leaders from various backgrounds with vast experiences in different industries. With this expertise, we are able to provide knowledge and guidance to our negotiators from different perspectives. With this strength, we are able to train our negotiators to be competitive in this industry. For example, the founder of CBD Properties, Mr. Adrian Wang, was a civil engineer before he ventured into the real estate profession. His experience enables him to work very closely with the developers, where he provides technical opinions and communicates with the consultant team on the best solutions for the development. With his 9 years marketing experience in the Real Estate Industry, he is actively working hand in hand with developers to launch their development projects throughout the Klang Valley.
We have also been recently awarded the ‘Highly Commended’ Best Real Estate Agency Website Malaysia 2010 by Asia Pacific Residential Property Awards in Association with Bloomberg Television. The event is part of the International Property Awards, the world’s most prestigious competition dedicated to identifying the best real estate professionals across the globe. We are honoured to be presented with this award.
