Ng (left) with Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong (right) at the CEO Series event organised by the Institute in 2023. – Art Chen/The Star

Rehda Institute is set to empower minds and nurtures talents

By: Yip Wai Fong

Rehda Institute, the training, research and education arm of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda), celebrated its 20th anniversary in November this year, marking an evolutionary legacy in its journey to becoming a leading think tank on Malaysia’s housing sector.

The Institute is led by a Board of Trustees helmed by chairman Datuk Jeffrey Ng Tiong Lip, with many of its members having served as Rehda’s presidents. Over the years, in its effort to develop human and intellectual capital for the real estate industry, the Institute has built a vast network of stakeholders and partners, comprising government agencies, academic institutions, financial institutions, professional groups and real estate players. 

“Since our inception, Rehda Institute has maintained a clear objective: to develop the people and talent who drive the real estate industry in Malaysia,” said Ng, adding that it has trained more than 30,000 housing and real estate professionals, including those from the real estate supply chain such as contractors, architects, engineers, planners, consultants as well as  government officials. 

The Institute has also published research studies on critical topics such as strata management, affordable housing, industrialised building systems (IBS) and the cost of doing business, which aims to contribute to informed discussions and recommendations for the industry. 

Speaking with StarProperty, Ng shared the Institute’s work along its three mission pillars – training, research and education: 

Developing tomorrow’s talents

StarProperty: Can you tell us more about the Institute’s effort in developing talents for the industry?

Ng: I think when it comes to talent development the context I put to you would be this. The trust factor with developers can be a lot better. Unfortunately whenever you hear or see project abandonment, straight away people will say it’s the property developers but they have forgotten that there are many, very good ones. From the Institute’s viewpoint, we think that a lot of these problems are really because of some of the players and they are in the minority, who unfortunately have not delivered in accordance with the laws and regulations. 

When they don't deliver you get a sense of trust deficit that comes along the way, so how do you tackle it? If you can be more professional, if your management skillset can be enhanced, you understand better the governance and compliance requirements and follow them which is expected of you, and if you get a better understanding of financial feasibility, all these can only be for the betterment of the housing delivery system. 

Rehda Institute wants to train the players; our events and training are not only for Rehda members. We have consultants, architects, engineers, surveyors, bankers and even lawyers, which means all the professional fraternities related to the property industry come for our training events. We share the latest rulings and regulatory changes and tell them, after this training session when you go back, make sure you tell staff or if you are a staff yourself, make sure it is implemented in your company. This is the way to raise the standard of delivering what is expected as per the legislation. In the long run, the trust factor shouldn’t become a concern anymore and the confidence will grow. Once the confidence grows, the government will not need to regulate so hard anymore. This is where the Institute wants to make sure that all developers, mainstream or small, right up to the bosses themselves, understand it's not about making money, it is about the balance between making money and making sure that people don't suffer. Hopefully, in times to come, the stakeholders, be it the government or house buyers, won’t have any suspicion that the developers are bad, therefore punishing them by imposing tougher legislation. 

Passing down the know-how

StarProperty: What are the most important skill sets or aptitudes needed by the industry?

Ng: For instance, risk management. So if you know that a project is questionable in terms of sellability, don’t go gung-ho and take in buyers, and then you get stuck and the project gets abandoned, so I think one of the very important skillset is really how do you handle risk management? If you can prevent it, prevent it. Don't get too out of hand and if you cannot prevent it, then do you have mitigating steps or measures to deal with the situation when it does arise? Another example is governance. You cannot plead ignorance and say I do not know this regulation or I don't know this law, you are in the business. So Rehda Institute’s objective is we want you to know, we want your colleagues to know, when you come for our training we tell you the consequences if you don't follow (the laws), we have top-notch people to train what you should be doing, what should you look out for, so that you don't get into trouble. Everything's about enhancing technical skills because the property business is actually very complex, it is not just about having entrepreneurial skills. All these types of training are to enhance their competency in the real estate business and hopefully, the knowledge and training they receive will put them in the right places and make them more compliant in terms of governance and be more professional.

Also, adaptability in good times and bad times. Just like when MCOs came. You cannot say, oh MCO times are tough, I closed (my business). You know you won't make profits every year and you make losses during the MCO period, but if you are sure that you can bounce back, then you just have to adapt, talk to bankers, talk to your house buyers, talk to authorities and say look I just need more time to withstand all these uncertainties, unknowns and negatives. Once they are over things will go back to normal. Teaching them to be adaptable is also very important.

StarProperty: Can this quality be trained?

Ng: It is through knowledge passed on to the players so that they have the skill to manoeuvre themselves, adapt and move on. In that sense you can look at the well-managed companies, after Covid-19, they did much better than before. There were also businesses like hotels which closed shops, but there are also new players building new hotels now. We can show you that if you're in the trough, you have to withstand the cycle for two years and work hard for the two years to make sure that you are still above water and when the cycle turns you know you are there. You shouldn’t say you are in bad times, you don’t know what to do and you close shop. 

Working collaboration with universities

StarProperty: What was the most memorable achievement for Rehda Institute?

Ng: I will say the proudest moment was probably when we introduced the Master of Real Estate Development, (MRED) at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). The hardest part was even to get the right University to team up and believe in what we wanted to do. Tan Sri Eddy Chen (the Institute’s past chairman) and I worked at (getting) different universities. At that point in time, I would say it was a very mammoth task to even convince the universities. So, when UTAR decided that our course was consistent with what they wanted to do, to me, Rehda Institute’s involvement in education has received an official endorsement, (as) UTAR is accredited by the Higher Education Ministry. It meant that what we were going to teach actually would be indirectly recognised by the ministry. Was it easy? The answer was no. Was it very challenging? It was. There were ups and downs, but we are all very seasoned, we can persevere, we know when something is not good, don't give up, sooner or later it will come. I think we went through probably two years in identifying, between Tan Sri Eddy and myself, the right university, and I think the rest is history. 10 years, 20 years or 30 years from now, the graduates will be the real talents in senior management. 

I was also the one who reviewed the course. My understanding with UTAR was that as we progress, I want to increase the practical subjects (taught by the industry practitioners) to 50%. At the moment, it is 30% which is broken down into various topics that cover the entire spectrum of property development. So if it is marketing, we get Datuk Seri Michael Yam, from the former Sunrise Bhd (now joint chairman of Triterra Group). Ngian Siew Siong, formerly with Sunway Property (now Chin Hin Group Property Bhd group chief executive officer), is strong in property development and management. He was also instrumental in coming up with the first strata management handbook. So we have all these experts and we roped them in and they are committed for the long term.

I am convinced if you get this master's degree you will be promoted within a very short time to senior management. The master's degree gives you an A-Z spectrum, it gives an opportunity to short-cut and learn all the critical processes to become a good property developer. The moment you acquire the knowledge, you can participate in discussions with the bosses, easily. This is the advantage of MRED and is a huge plus for those who take this course.

StarProperty: What can we expect more from the Institute?

Ng: I'm working with the management team for more collaboration in the field of research and education with established universities. Moving forward next year, very shortly we will be working with Monash University to come up with workshops on sustainability. It will be a workshop for a couple of days and they will get a certificate that says that you attended what Monash and Rehda Institute have developed. The syllabus is good enough for you to understand all the relevant aspects of sustainability. 

The keyword (for us) is working with established universities, so we will also work with UM, UTAR and Sunway University. (From our side) we give all the practical aspects of how things are done and they do the research. 

Another thing we do is study tours. (Rehda Institute chief operating officer) David Chong and his team devise very relevant topics for all stakeholders. Our study tours have been attended by so many different people and by government attendees from federal, state and local authorities. There are a few purposes to the study tours. One, we regard ourselves as a research think tank. We want to get as much information as possible on what are the best practices elsewhere. We also want to understand the benchmarks and be able to adapt those to our local context. By going out there, our stakeholders can relate (to good practices), bring those home and apply them. Another thing is the networking side. We invite many credible housing advocates and research houses, whether they are from Indonesia, Thailand or Singapore, we interact and exchange ideas, and there is so much to gain out of the tour. Rehda Institute’s objective is to continue to strengthen its position on training and we know we are on track to achieve it. 

Also, Rehda Institute can be as independent as we get. Moving forward, our research and recommendations will be supported by data and are data-driven. It is my wish that our research reports will be recognised as credible and independent. One of our upcoming reports will be on abandoned housing, and the issue involves developers. We take a professional approach, substantiating it with facts and figures. Once the report is out, we will brief the stakeholders to collect feedback. 

Rehda Institute’s Board of Trustees posed for a group picture at the launch of the 20th anniversary coffee table book. From left are Datuk Muztaza Mohamad, Yam, Datuk Seri FD Iskandar, Chen, Ng, Tan Sri Teo Chiang Kok, Datuk Ng Seing Liong and Tiah Toh Twin.

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