Additions are to reflect the current real estate market trends
StarProperty has revealed a series of changes to the StarProperty Awards 2022 Realtor Edition (SREA) to reflect the recovering property market. It has implemented three key changes - a shift to new venues to celebrate the subsequent occasions, fun themes for its gala dinners and, most importantly, adding five new categories. This marks the first time such a large number of new categories and sub-categories has been announced since the Awards' inception. In fact, the number of trophies is more than doubled from last year's.
This is an enormous move for this year’s SREA, a sign that the elite institution is once again trying to find more ways to reward and recognise the agencies, agents and negotiators, and increase the prestige of the annual ceremony. Adding categories to the Awards could, conceivably, help to show StarProperty’s proactiveness towards the changes within the Real Estate industry.
The five new categories introduced are:
- Developer Preferred Awards - Bumiputra Lots
- Key Personality Award
- Most Transacted Rental Award - Value & Volume
- Regional Award
- Subsale Awards - Value & Volume
These new categories are further broken into sub-categories involving agencies, agents, team leaders and negotiators. In all, there are 23 categories and 31 sub-categories involving 87 recipients from 15 real estate agencies.
To ensure fair play, the appointed panel of independent judges were from related real estate sectors comprising representatives from a law firm, two prominent property developers, a bank and the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association's (Rehda) Youth Wing.
The judges were GAN and ZUL Advocates & Solicitors group managing partner Datuk Simon Lim Seng Chai, OSK Property chief operating officer Seth Lim, Gamuda Land central marketing and sales executive director Sueway Tan, Bank Rakyat mortgage financing head Haslina Ali and Rehda Youth chairman Lee Han Rick.
In addition, only registered real estate negotiators (RENs), real estate agents (REAs) and probationary estate agents (PEAs) were allowed to participate in the Awards.
StarProperty Awards’ reputation
No doubt that there are many real estate awards in Malaysia. Deciding what awards to enter could be challenging but it is essential to weigh up the time and effort it would take to join against the potential gains, especially from reputable institutions like StarProperty, which has a good track record.
With resources often stretched, especially in recent times, entering such an established award can entice RENs, REAs and PEAs to look at their operations from a different perspective and compare themselves to their competitors. To stand out from the competition, real estate stakeholders need to be innovative, diverse, strategic and dynamic, among others. Competing in such awards would encourage RENs, REAs and PEAs to look inward to better themselves, which could be more valuable than winning the trophy itself. And because SREA is always seeking to improve and be relevant to the industry, this helps strengthen their resolve.
A win can give a seal of approval to the respective negotiator or agent and serves as a sign of quality for potential home buyers and sellers and investors. It can also help with relationships with suppliers and financial institutions. Furthermore, it is a great way to differentiate yourselves from competitors and send out positive signals to home buyers and investors.
Awards also elevate a company’s hiring stature among recruits. By pitching the company as an award-winning one, agencies can attract the talent needed to push the company forward. At the same time, it can increase employee morale to be working for an award-winning agency. This also helps to ensure staff retention as employees are focused on what’s great about their company and can feel proud to be a part of it.
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