Thought leaders and experts to watch at the PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – 11 July 2017 PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit, the premier gathering of top-level business leaders and industry experts in the country’s property sector, debuts on 16 August 2017 at InterContinental Kuala Lumpur where more than 20 experts will participate to share insights and exchange ideas.

The central theme of the upcoming conference is ‘Shaping the future of Malaysian real estate’, which allows the invited speakers to assess what is currently happening as the domestic property market undergoes consolidation and a period of correction. Declining property prices indicate soft market conditions, according to recent data released by Malaysia’s Valuation and Property Services Department, with residential units devaluating by 0.7 percent in Q4 2016, marking the first quarter-on-quarter drop in the country’s House Price Index (HPI) since the 1.83 percent fall recorded during the last quarter of 2008. Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wrote in his recent blog post that the country should benefit from mutual cooperation and interconnection with its neighbours and infrastructure changes, realising the potential and allowing the growth of local industries.

China’s so-called ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative will be the focus of the session to be delivered at the PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit by Rafiq Jumabhoy, executive chairman of Orkney Investments, who will discuss the highly ambitious programme’s impact on the Malaysian real estate sector.

The session will be followed by a discussion on building successful relationships between local developers and overseas investors in ‘Investment inbound: How Malaysia can reform to attract foreign investor?’

Seasoned conference speaker Sigrid Zialcita, managing director and head of Asia Pacific research at Cushman & Wakefield, will then tackle the weakening Malaysian ringgit in ‘Turning a negative into a positive: What can be learnt from the depreciation of a currency?’ in her 15-minute session and share thoughts on how this depreciation can be used to advantage.

Just before the networking lunch, the Summit will delve deeper into Malaysia’s macro financial issues at a time when developers closing fewer transactions, via a 15-minute fireside interview with a Southeast Asian banking expert.

The afternoon programme will begin with a 45-minute panel discussion on restricted mortgages, touching upon mutual trust between banks and developers, credit risk, and how to deal with interested buyers who are deemed unqualified to secure a housing loan.

A panel session called ‘The increasing costs of being a developer’ will follow, which will be joined by several experts: Dexter See, managing director for RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) in ASEAN; Francis Tan, chief investment officer at Scotia Real Estate Group Pte Ltd; Loong Chee Wei, senior associate director for equity research at Affin Hwang Capital; and Steven Ooi, project director at Binastra Land.

In the 15-minute ‘TechTalk: Why drones are the new ‘must-have’ for the construction sector’, renowned technopreneur and CEO of Avetics, Weilang Zhang, will demonstrate why Malaysian developers should wise up to using drone technology to revolutionise their business and take it to new heights.

After a short coffee break, Nicholas Ho, deputy managing director at hpa architects (Ho & Partners Architects), will share his vision for the massive Manila Bay – City of Pearl master development between the Philippine and Chinese governments in ‘Building a smart, green, self-sustaining city of the future’, which will last for 15 minutes.

Joining the line-up is Iain Twine, CEO at Edelman South East Asia and Australasia, who will examine the state of the Malaysian property sector in his 45-minute session ‘The key to being competitive in a crowded market’ and how a strong marketing strategy can transform a good product into an outstanding one to move ahead the competition.

Closing the whole-day conference are four chief executives from some of Malaysia’s top real estate development firms, who will jump ahead into the future and compare their vision with other industry leaders on the panel.

In the hour-long forum called ‘Meet the CEO’s: Our 10-year real estate vision’ to be moderated by PropertyGuru Property Report’s head of publishing Liam Aran Barnes, the confirmed panelists are: Dr

James Tee, CEO, Medini Iskandar; Mohd Salem Kailany, CEO, PNB Development Sdn. Berhad (PNBD); KK Wong, CEO, UMLand – Seri Austin, Malaysia; and Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib, CEO, UEM Sunrise Berhad.

“We’re very happy to welcome the speakers and delegates to the PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit programme. We’re providing an important platform where the industry’s leaders and decision makers can share insights and best practices in order to create a more sustainable future,” said Terry Blackburn, founder and managing director of PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards and Property Report magazine.

More than 100 regional experts, C-level executives and senior managers from the real estate, design, finance and government sectors are expected to participate in the conference, which takes place one day before the fourth annual PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Malaysia) gala dinner.

The PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit 2017 is supported by Malaysia’s No.1 property website PropertyGuru.com.my as the official portal partner; hpa, official breakfast and lunch sponsor; and media partners Malay Mail, Oxford Business Group, and PropertyGuru Property Report, Asia’s leading luxury real estate, architecture and design publication.

The PropertyGuru Malaysia Real Estate Summit is part of the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit conference series, which succeeds the highly-praised Property Report Congress series in 2015 and 2016. The Summits will also be held in Thailand (14 September, Plaza Athenee Bangkok), Indonesia (11 October, Fairmont Jakarta), and Singapore (7-8 November, Sands Expo and Convention Centre).

Speaking, sponsorship and media partnership opportunities are now available. For bookings and enquiries, contact ARES@propertyguru.com or visit the official website: AsiaRealEstateSummit.com

Join the conversation within Asia Real Estate Summit's social network on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and share your insights on today’s property sector.

—END—