By Sherry Koh | Sep 8, 2010

Interview with David Ong and Julie Wong

Two dynamic personalities in the real estate industry, Reapfield Properties Sdn Bhd founder and president David Ong, 55, and Malaysian Institute of Estate Agent (MIEA) president Julie Wong, 50, took time off from their busy schedule to join the StarProperty.my photoshoot.
Ong was recently awarded Man of the Year 2009/2010 at the MIEA (Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents) National Real Estate Awards. To date, Reapfield has 13 offices and he credits his success to his great team.

Wong, on the other hand, is the current president of MIEA (Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents). To date, there are more than 300 members and they trying to increase membership. The institute plans to conduct a Diploma in Real Estate this year. Currently, they offer a 2-day basic negotiator course monthly, which have proven to be tremendously popular.

 StarProperty.my chats with the affable duo about their views on the real estate industry in general, whether we are in a bubble and how ethical should a real estate agent be.

Tell us about your professional life.
Wong: Presently, I am the president of Malaysian Institute of Estate Agent, which is an institute where most of the members are registered agents. In total, we have about 2,099 real estate agents in Klang Valley, but in the institute, we only have about 300 over members at the moment. We are trying to increase our membership. As you know, if the membership is larger, you have more support and your voice is louder.

In this institute, there are 19 of us and each of us has a portfolio to fulfil. For example, the deputy president is in charge of professional practice, which means that if there are complaints from the public against our members, we have to listen and try to solve the case. He is also in charge of the National Real Estate Awards. (View the winners of the MIEA National Real Estate Awards here).

We also have three vice presidents. One is the state branch chairman who is in charge of our state branches. We have branches in Johor, Penang, Ipoh, Sabah and Sarawak. The second vice president is in charge of education. We are starting our Diploma in Real Estate this year. As the institute, we feel that we should be the one conducting (the course), although we do now conduct a negotiator course. More and more people are attending the two-day negotiator course. Actually, we compressed a four-year course into the very basic internal things you need to know about real estate into two days.

Other than that, the education chairman is in charge of the yearly convention. MAREC 11 (Malaysian Annual Real Estate Convention) will be held next year, 4th of March. Our third vice president is in charge of liberalisation and globalisation. The government is implementing it, and it has been brought forward to year 2015 because the Government found that other countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, have already reached 75% of liberalisation and we have not. So that’s why they are pushing it.

David, do share with us your background.
Ong: I founded the company (Reapfield Properties) about 25 years ago and I think that my specialty is in building the business through recruitment. Training and development is a very big part of the business model and I am also looking at succession planning. So, I lead the group in that sense. So far we have 13 offices and I believe that we have a great team of people working together.

Where you think the real estate market is heading to? Are we in a bubble?
Wong: I don’t think that the market will crash or there is a bubble. When it happened in 1996, there was a drastic crash where people just had their money in only one basket. But nowadays people have diversified finances, like 20% in savings, 40% in investment and the other 40% they divide into some other sectors. So you can see that when there is some sort of economic crisis they are not as hard hit. You can see that people are still able to maintain payment of their loans and so forth. You don’t see the bank crying like those days (laughs).

Ong: I was just telling Julie that globally, it’s a very volatile market, whether it is financial or otherwise. After the sub-prime crisis, we had the Europe challenge, Greece and South Korean tension. Without all these things, I would say that generally the economy has recovered after the sub-prime crisis. I also believe that under a fairly good leadership in Malaysia, with all the plans of bringing recovery, the last year, we have been doing fairly well and prices of property have improved or gone up a lot in good locations. As for bubble, I think that some places like Desa ParkCity; I wonder how much more it can go. They seem to be the trendsetter in terms of pricing because of the uniqueness of the whole project. But sometimes, when I look at how the prices are just escalating, it can be a bit scary.

Wong: There must be uniqueness from every developer; just like one developer I know in Seremban. As you know, none of the commercial shophouses in Seremban has lifts. But this particular developer is going to develop a five-storey shophouse with lifts. And it is going to be gated. Gated commercial centre is something that you can rarely find. So that is their unique selling point, which I think would work, and it is very near the new LEKAS (Lebuhraya Kajang-Seremban) highway in Seremban.

The possibility of removing subsidies and increase in BLR - how would it impact the real estate sector?
Ong: I personally don’t think that subsidies will affect the property market and people’s purchasing power. Somehow, real estate is a basic necessity. People will have to find the money and I think the subsidy depends on how the Government handles it. If they spread over a lengthy period of years, then the pain would not be as drastic.

Wong: I think it would affect more of the medium category, not the very rich as they still have loads of cash (laughs).

Is the Government doing enough? Should more be done to curb over-heating of property prices?
Ong: I think that interest rates are still attractive. Funds are cheap in that sense. I also think, that with the equities market being so volatile, people have been saying that one of the best ways to have a solid investment is to return to bricks and mortar. That’s one of the things that people believe in, especially in Malaysia. A lot of Malaysians love to invest in properties. It is a very safe haven, if done correctly and in right locations.

What would make a good property investment then?
Ong: In general, it is about established locations.

Matured areas?
Ong: Correct. Matured areas. As the old saying goes, location, location, location. I don’t think it’s very far from the truth, though Ho Chin Soon (expert map maker) now says that it is location, timing and branding. There’s some weight on that as well. But location has always been proven because even in down times, you will still find people wanting that location.

Are there many people who ask for green buildings or homes?
Wong: I think that the public is not really aware about this yet. Only those people in the industry will know, because they attend seminars and forums. But the public doesn’t really know what green is all about or what it means to go green.

Ong: People are more concerned about bread and butter, than green.

Wong: Incentives given by the Government are not as attractive, compared to Singapore. The Singapore Government is giving lots of incentive for developers who go green.

What are your views on selling ethics? For example, if a place is haunted, would you still push the sale?
Wong: Tell the truth because people will find out eventually and you will lose the client when you hide the fact

Ong: Or we hire ghostbusters (laughs).

Wong: I’ve sold a haunted house before, about more than 10 years ago. I was very lucky. I prayed very hard that the buyer that comes will really love the house and will know what to do with it. I met this priest from Thailand and they bought the house as a place for them to translate their songs, hymns and prayers to different languages. They sell it here and the money goes back to orphans in Thailand.

What’s next for you?
Ong: I am focusing more on real estate agency building. My focus is on leading a real estate agency and for Reapfield, we believe in recruitment of more sales people. Recruiting people is one of the mainstays that I focus on a lot on. In many ways, my sales people are my internal customers. They go and meet the external customers. I chose this business model many years ago and decided that I will stop doing sales myself. So I try to replicate myself in that sense. Multiplication (laughs).

But I deal with people. I was just telling Julie that people management is one of the most challenging tasks. But I think that it is good because it develops me. Because, if I can still love difficult people, I think that I have built some character in myself (laughs).

Have you known each other for a long time?
Ong: Yes, we knew one another from the industry. But we are forced to know more about one another today (laughs).

What about you, Julie? Your plans for the future?
Wong: As the president of the institute, I think we have to brand MIEA more. Branding is one of the steps that I have to take, so that the awareness on the benefits of joining the institute can be communicated to the other agents or negotiators.