General overview of the participants at the 'Positioning Malaysian real estate: Post GST and 11th Malaysian plan 2015' conference.
Experts in various fields such as real estate and infrastructure recently gathered to share their new ideas in a conference titled 'Positioning Malaysian real estate: Post GST and 11th Malaysian plan 2015'.
The conference was organised by Malaysia Property Incorporated (MPI), which is a Malaysian government initiative under the Economic Planning Unit. It kicked off with a welcome speech by the Economic Planning Unit director of services industry section Dr Kamariah Noordin who spoke about the policies that have been implemented towards foreign investment as well as the impact on real estate and finance.
The highlights of the day were two panel discussion sessions, one on the retail market and the other on transit-oriented developments (TOD).
The discussion on retail market was moderated by JLL Property Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd managing director Y. Y. Lau and the panelists consisted of Jones Lang LaSalle Property Consultants Pte Ltd national director Adam Cook, Jerde Partnership associate vice president and project manager Jacky Cheng and Yardi Property Management Solutions Asian regional director Bernie Devine.
Panel discussion on Revitalising Retail Market, from left to right: YY Lau (MD, JLL Malaysia), Adam Cook (Director, JLL Asia Pacific), Jacky Cheng (AVP, Jerde Partnership), Bernie Devine (Regional Director, Yardi Property Management Solutions Asia).
Touching on the retail market's trends, designs and profitable solutions, the three panelists tackled the trend of current figures indicating a potential oversupply of retail malls. They shed light on the possibilities that retail mall owners can incorporate to retain tenants, the minimum size needed for a mall to succeed and ways that mall owners or tenants can create a more attractive retail experience for shoppers.
The panel speakers also provided a few ideas on how tenants could revitalise their thinking, in order to present a more profitable mall. In Asia, the tendency is to build bigger profitable malls as they are an attractive real estate asset in cities like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong (all top tourist shopping destinations). Creative partnerships seemed to be the way to go in reinventing one's image, as can be seen with Google and Luxottica.
The two corporations, who are setting the pace in their respective industries (high tech developers and fashion designers / eyewear professionals), are partnering up to create a whole new line of eyewear for Glass (the Internet-connected eyewear), combining innovative technology and avant-garde designs.
For the discussion on TOD, it was moderated by Prasarana Integrated Development Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Rudyanto Azhar and the panelists consisted of Benoy divisional director Terence Seah as well as AECOM Malaysia Sdn Bhd associate director of design, planning and economics (South and South-East Asia) Richard Reamer.
This panel session highlighted the success stories of international Transit Oriented Development (TOD) concepts and how Malaysia can stand to benefit from emulating other cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. With the Malaysian government allocating more than RM40 billion for infrastructure planned in the next few years (the High Speed Railway that connects KL to Singapore, for example), it will be a logical step for developers to want their upcoming projects to be centered around the rail stations.
These TOD concepts usually comprise residential and commercial components, allowing for a reduction in city congestion as the people who live and/or work here would have the incentives to use public transport. The public will also be able to see new rails in a few years as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line 1 and 2 and Light Rapid Transit (LRT) Line 3 materialises. It would be up to Prasarana to pioneer efforts that are able to transform these new stations as walkable, vibrant and liveable neighbourhoods.
Other topics covered at the conference were financially based. One of them was titled 'Fund manager's perspective: Attractive investment features of European vs Malaysian real estate' and it was presented by Employees Provident Fund head of global real estate Kamaruzaman Hassan. The EPF is one of the top ten largest pension funds in the world with a fund size of more than RM600 billion and Kamaruzaman spoke on some of their current experiences and direction in terms of real estate investments in Europe and Malaysia.
Press Conference, from left to right: Terence Seah (Director, Benoy), Jacky Cheng (AVP, Jerde Partnership), Adam Cook (Director, JLL Asia Pacific), Rudyanto Azhar (CEO Prasarana's PRIDE), Richard Reamer (Assoc. Director, AECOM), Georg Chmiel (Group MD, iProperty), YY Lau (MD, JLL Malaysia). Panel discussion chaired by Veena Loh (heading Malaysia Property Incorporated).
Finally, there were talks presented by eminent speakers who flew in to KL from the region to speak on the real estate marketing trends in Asia Pacific. These included RAM Rating Services Bhd head of agribusiness real estate and construction ratings Thong Mun Wai with his talk titled 'Cross-border investment risks of ASEAN real estate'; a talk presented by SingCapital Pte Ltd chief executive officer Alfred Chia titled 'GST impact on real estate, the Singapore experience'; as well as the talk titled 'Successful real estate marketing trends in Asia Pacific' by iProperty Group managing director and chief executive officer Georg Chmiel.
