MIPFM: New board for property managers would be confusing

The still subdued consumer sentiment against a backdrop of rising cost of living and elevated household debts is holding consumers back from committing themselves to the purchase of big ticket items like a house.

KUALA LUMPUR: Creating a new board to manage property and facility managers involves public funds and would take time because it involves a different act, the immediate past president of the Malaysian Institute of Property and Facility Managers (MIPFM) said.

“It is a steep learning curve. And why reinvent the wheel?” asked BOVAEP board member and immediate past president of MIPFM Ishak Ismail at a press conference on Nov 1.

Ishak said the Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757), implemented June 1, 2015, empowers owners to manage their properties and makes it legal and binding for developers to hand over the management and maintenance of the property. 

Act 757 works hand in hand with the amended Act 242 which ensures that only bona fide property managers are entrusted with the management of properties. This safeguards and protects the public from unscrupulous and illegal property managers.

Acts 242 allows practising property managers with experience to be registered under BOVAEP between Jan 1, 2018 and Dec 31, 2018. To date, 1,414 new practitioners have been registered. 
Ishak says nothing is static and changes are constant to further the real estate sector and the profession.

“So we need a unified body and if anyone were to refer to other countries, these different disciplines are under the same board,” Ishak said.

He said to have three separate boards is confusing to the public and property owners. They can complain to the Commission of Buildings or the Strata Management Tribunal today. If there were to be three boards under different ministry, who will they go to? 

Currently, BOVAEP is under the Finance Ministry and there is a reason why this is so, he said.
He added that the study of property or estate management involves three discipline -- estate agency, property management and valuations.

Ishak said to suggest that the property management board to come under the Housing and Local Government Ministry instead of the MoF, as per the current practice, may be short-sighted. 
He added that the call to have separate boards to govern the different disciplines is not new.

With more people living in strata properties, and more offices and malls entering the Malaysian landscape, the need to have good governance and transparency is all the more crucial.

BOVAEP said it is ready to engage with MIPFM and MIEA to clear the air as to prolong the current unhappiness is counter productive.

Valuation And Property Services Department (Operations) deputy director general Ahmad Zailan Azizuddin, Association of Valuers, Property Managers, Estate Agents and Property Consultants in the Private Sector Malaysia (PEPS) president Michael Kong, The Royal Institution of Surveyors treasurer Thiruselvam Arumugam, Malaysian Institute of Professional Estate Agents and Consultants president Francis Loh, PEPS immediate past president and BOVAEP board member Foo Gee Jen and BOVAEP board member Kamaruzaman Jamil were present at the BOVAEP press conference.