Top 8 Property Developers in Malaysia – Singapore

There are three broad categories of real estate or property agencies in Singapore, namely multi-national corporation agencies,franchisee agencies, and local agencies.

Multi-national agencies include Jones Liang, DTZ, Colliers, Knight Frank, Savils, CBRE, etc. These are firms incorporated overseas, usually are listed on overseas stock exchange. Very often, people call these MNC property firms as global top 5 or top 4 property advisory firms depending on the size of their market capitalization, number of staff strength or revenue.

Read More: Top 20 Property Developers Companies In Malaysia 2018

For e.g. DTZ, among the global Top 4 property firms, marketing itself as the global leader in property services. DTZ started business in UK in year 1784 which is 230 over years ago,  and today they have strength of 47000 people including 24200 permanent staff globally, operating in 208 cities in 52 countries, through out Europe, Asia Pacific, Middles East, Russia, the Americas, and Africa. Usually big property firms have multiple business units (BUS). In DTZ, they have Specialist Services, Consultancy Services, Property Research, New Launch business unit, Property Auction, Property Investment unit, Resale Agency, and so on and so forth.

Read More: Top 10 Property Management Software In Malaysia

Benefits for property agent joining such MNC property firms

Property agents joining big MNC real estate firms will enjoy the following:

1. Enjoy branding – individual agents won’t be easily recognized by big clients like MNC banks, Reits, property consortium, financial intermediaries, global developers, international investor. Therefore, the branding helps agents to get access to these big firms.
2. Being supported by corporate funding and budget every year, these firms’ agency arm expand with ready access to pool of fund to expand every year. For e.g, renovation of office every 2 years, buy new machines or property systems every year things like that. Besides, DTZ will provide most of the property system tools at no extra cost to property agent.
3. Extensive trainings – usually big MNC global property agencies can afford to provide extensive trainings at low cost or no cost to property agents at company level, reasons being they have ready made training material, established business model, international expertise, wide variety of experiences and corporate support. However, not all the global top 5 property firms are equally strong in agency business unit. Some still catching up, because lack of focus, and started late in Singapore and Asia. DTZ is one the pioneers in Asia and is the most established Real Estate Agency among the global top 5 property agencies in Singapore.
4. Resources – Besides training, agents get to benefit from resources like access to local property research paper, global property market research, market intelligence, property valuation, property management, collective sales expertise and property auctions.
5. Network – Property agents can leverage companies’ established network to reach out to global property sellers or property buyers. At company level, big developers usually have established long term relationship with global big property agencies. Thus, it is relatively easier for MNC property firms to get marketing right to market local high end property projects or big scale premium overseas new property launches.
6. Structure – Internally, the property agency firms may have mature system to support the property agents in the filed, for e.g. advertisement consultancy department will help agents to screen through and assist in design the advertisement in order to be compliant with CEA guidelines. The legal advisor will advise or deal with complains or cases. The big firms also have more trainings and emphasis on compliance to regulations to avoid damaging their brand. Agents in big MNC property agency like DTZ will benefit from more training in this aspect to result in less trouble and more time in doing business.

Franchisee Agencies

Franchisee agencies name could be popular names because they have franchisee all over the world but they run by individual franchisees bosses other than one corporation. The franchising business model is a quick way for local real estate bosses to start up real estate agency in their countries or their cities. The founders have to put in high capital outlay like upright franchisee fee to get the exclusive franchising right in the city or country they wish to operate the property agency. The local franchisee has the freedom to operate the business in local context. You may have heard of ERA, Remax, or Century 21. As far as I know, these property firms operated under such model. The property agencies are mostly local start ups and local based but they can sell to foreign shareholders, or even list the company on local stock exchange when the business grows to a certain size. The business is still pretty much confined to local geography where it operates as an exclusive franchisee. Therefore, the property agency boss in one city may be different from that of the property agency having same name in another city because they are just different companies.

local agencies

There are many Singapore based start up property agencies, boutique real estate agencies, or one man band property agencies. Some local property agencies grow big in terms of number of property agents. Local based property agency who has the most number of property agents are Pronex and ERA. Each of such local property agency may have 4000-5000 property agents. Property agents shall take note when a property agency has such a big number of property agents, the resources and support infrastructure shall grow at the same time to cater for the needs of such a big group of real estate agents workforce.

Choose A Property Agency

Before the new property agents decide which property company to join, they should ask themselves what they wish to do in one year, 5 years and 10 years down the road. New property agents shall plan for themselves not just eager to jump in, and usually jump in following a friend who is not very successful in their agencies. Here are some decisions the new property agents may wish to make:

1. If you decided to do mainly HDB and condominium, especially the low end sub urban residential properties, some local companies like ERA may have new launch residential projects in mass markets and more choices less than $1mil quantum. Global top five agencies may be converging into the sub urban markets. Traditionally their forte pretty much lie in the mid to high end market;  however, property agents live on commission but not number of deals. Property agent closed 20 big deals may be better than those closed 100 small deals a year with the same time spent. Pay attention to the time you need to spend, the number of deals you can close and ultimately how much commission you can earn after put in the maximum time and effort.
2. If you decide to do purely new launch for one year, for five years and do not mind doing it for next ten years, choose an agency firm which is very strong in new property launch. The property agents doing new launch usually sit in the show room waiting for walk in. When the market is hot, lots of walk in but when market is cold, property agents may not be able to see what they want to see.
3. If you decide to be active in both residential and commercial property markets and master skills in mid to high end market, you may wish to consider global property agency firms where you can tap their resources, training, networks, and branding.  DTZ, being one of the most established global top 4 property firm, have good track record in doing both high end residential and commercial properties, For e.g. resale of landed properties, high-end residential projects like Sail@Marina, Marina Bay Residences, Marina Suites, Sentosa Cover, Amber Skye, RV residences in River Valley that kind of high end condominiums. Property agents are trained to sell office, industrial, hotels, and other commercial properties.

After the new agents have decided what to do, move on consider other factors as follows:

1. Ask if the property agency provides enough resources, trainings and direct 1-to-1 coaching.
2. Ask if the property agency provide multi-tier support meaning support from the company level, the group level and the team level.
3. Ask if the trainings are frequent and if they are costly. Better ask to view the training schedule.
4. Ask if you need to network with overseas agencies to bring in international clients
5. Check if the property agency can equip you with knowledge in various kinds of properties sectors including not just residential but also commercial and industrial property sectors.

Focus of Global Property Agencies

The property agency is one of the Business Units (BUS) of the entire corporation business portfolio in the global property firms. The local offices of the global or MNC property firms pretty much follow the standard business units structure internationally. For e.g. DTZ Singapore has two companies namely DTZ Debenham Tie Leung and DTZ Property Network. DTZ Debenham Tie Leung is in charge of specialist services, consultancy services and other business units while DTZ Property Networks is in charge of property agency business unit.

The property agency business unit has its freedom to do all kinds or property transactions while leveraging headquarters resources, branding and network. Their focus is more into high end residential, commercial, hotel, offices, office buildings, retail malls, prime locations projects, industrial, luxury properties in Singapore and overseas.  The high end residential properties are mostly in strategic growing areas like Marina Bay, Sentosa, Tajong Pagar, Paya Lebar, Outram, Rocher Corridor, Core city areas like Orchard and River Valley. These big global property firms have established track record in dealing with commercial properties. Commercial properties required more knowledge as compared to residential properties, therefore, without proper training and guidance, it is hard for the new agents to start. Property agents must have the knowledge to handle the complexity of commercial properties marketing and transactions.

Therefore, if property agents can find the best mentor in the global property firms to coach them commercial and industrial courses, new property agents have head-start over their competitors to succeed quicker in commercial property industry. The focus of the Global property agencies usually can strike a good balance between commercial and residential properties. The global property agencies usually get picked by established overseas developers to market their overseas projects in Singapore or all over the world due to agencies’ global presences. Often, these projects are in prime locations and screened by the global properties firms.

Focus of Local based Property Agencies

The local based property agencies focus pretty much in residential markets particularly in HDB and condominiums, no doubts they can perform well too in the area. For new property agents, residential property sector, due to its simplicity, usually is easier to start with as compared to commercial properties. Some of the local based start up property agency focus on specific property sectors like landed properties or industrial properties. Some local property agencies may have overseas project and new launches but more confined to Singapore market and quantum is relatively lower.

Commission Schemes

Global Property Agencies

As far as I know, the global top five (5) Property agencies starts off with 80% pay out scheme to new agents which means 80% of the gross commission to the agent and 20% goes to the property agency company. Usually the maximum commission payout is capped at 90%. Of course, if the property agents have established a team or group, they will enjoy additional over riding commission and the rate vary from agency to agency.

Local Based Property Agencies

Most of the local property agencies starts off with 70% commission pay out scheme to new agents which means 70% of the gross commission earned to the property agent and 20% goes to the property agency company. Usually the industry standard maximum commission payout is also capped at 90%. Of course, if the property agents have established a team or group, they will enjoy additional over riding commission and the rate may vary from agency to agency.

Choose a Mentor

As a new property agent, or experienced property agent considering a switch to another property agency, usually will ask how to choose a property agent as the direct mentor.

There are three broad categories of mentors:

1. “Top Producer” and “Top leader” mentor:  In real estate agencies, it is very hard to find a mentor who is the “Top Producer” and “Top leader”, which means the top producer property agent not only performs well in his/her personal sales but also can coach the group personally to perform as well. If the new property agents can bump into such Top Producer Leaders, the new property agents can really learn a lot. The high performance leader top producer agents like to train ambitious and hardworking property agents.
2. “Top Leader” mentor (but not top producer): Top leader mentor may do a good job in either recruitment or training or both. Although the leader cannot perform, at least the property leader can train. However, the aggregate group sales performance may be due to the large number of property agents in the group. It is a number game which means the more the leader recruits, the high chance the group can become number 1 because the Top Leader Top Team or Top Branch or Top Manager whatever it calls measure based on the aggregate commission figures of the entire group, of course, the more property agents, the higher the aggregate commission figure can be.
3. “Top Recruiter” mentor ( but neither top producer nor top leader): Top recruiter mentor may be very good in persuading new property agents to join. However, if the group cannot perform, and the mentors themselves cannot perform, the point for new property agents to join such leader may be because the new property agents wish to learn only how to recruit property agents. If that is your career path, the this type of mentor may be a right choice.
4. None of the above: This is the type of mentor new property agents may wish to avoid.

Top Producer Earnings

Very often we heard million dollars producer club, top achiever, top producer, top team, top division, top branch or top agency. These terms may be confusing to new agents. Here we explain more in details as follows:

1. Individual assessment  – if the property agent earned the most commission in the year, the property agent will be awarded number one (1) Top Achiever, Top Producer or Top Agent whatever it calls in different property firms.  The property firms usually have Top 100, Top 200 or Top 300 producers.  They have yearly and monthly assessment. Yearly No.1 top achiever means the commission earned is the highest in the company during the year. The monthly top producer means the property agent brokerage a highest-commission deal only in that particular month.
2. Group assessment – if the aggregate commission earned by the team, the branch or the division whatever it calls is the highest in the year, the manager or leader of the team, branch or the division will be awarded the number one (1) Top Team, Top Manager or Top Branch.  Similarly, they also have monthly group assessment.

It is very hard to find the same property agent who can be a “Top Leader” and is a “Top Producer” at the same time. Especially, someone who can be No.1 Top Achiever and No.1 Top Manager, and not just based on monthly result but according to yearly assessment. Usually husband and wife will do recruitment and personal sales together, which means wife may do sales and husband does recruitment. It is hard for one person to do both and succeed in both areas at the same time.

You may be very interested to know how much the “Top Achiever” earns every year. In property agency having 1500 property agents or above, the top producers earnings usually are 7 figures a year. In smaller agencies, the Top Producer earnings usually can be 6-7 figures too. For a property agency firm having 300 property agents or less, the Top Producer’s earning could be just $500,000 or less. However, sometimes the property agents may hit one off deal so still possible to earn 7 figure commissions. Sometimes, the property agent can earn up to 7 figure commission in one single month. Therefore, it really depends. The commission also depends on market condition. During bull market, the earning for top producers can be high 7 figures and in bear market, the commission may drop to low 7 figure or slip to 6 figures if the market is really stagnant.

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Top 8 Property Developers in Malaysia:

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SPSETIA

Malaysia’s Leading Property Developer, S P Setia Berhad is a public listed property development company in Malaysia. It was traditionally involved in general building and home construction, completing over 20,000 units of link houses.

IJMLAND

IJM Land is one of the leading property developers in Malaysia, develops various high quality and successful property development projects including residential property, commercial property, office, building and township project.

MALTON

Malton Berhad is a public listed property developer based in Malaysia. Projects includes high-rise residential, offices and commercial properties.

INP

I&P Group – leading & trusted property development company in Malaysia that prides itself on its proven track records & passion to deliver superb service.

HAPSENGLAND

Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad is a progressive and well-established publicly listed Company with diversified businesses in plantations, property investment and development, credit financing, trading of fertilizers and automotive, as well as building materials and stone quarries.

UEMSUNRISE

UEM Sunrise Berhad is one of the best leading property developers in Malaysia, developing various high quality & successful property development projects.

SBCGROUP

SBC CORPORATION BERHAD is a construction and property development company in Malaysia listed on the Main Board of the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.

AMVERTON

We are property development company in Malaysia. Project including Amverton Greens, Amverton Hills, Amverton Links, Amverton Park Bungalow, Amverton Kiara, Kemuning Greenhills, Taman Kemuning Hijauan 2, Amverton Cove Golf & Island Resort as well as other leisure & resort project.

WEBCONLAND

High quality property developer in Malaysia with almost 20 years of building development experiences.