A holistic approach to work

How often do you hear of a real estate agency that provides an in-house gym in order to promote work-life balance among its staff?

Located in Petaling Jaya, the headquarters of Hartamas Real Estate Sdn Bhd not only has a gym studio but also karaoke facilities for its employees.

“It is not all about work here as we believe a holistic approach produces the best results. As we bond, we can motivate each other and work towards the common goal,” says Hartamas Real Estate group managing director Eric Lim.

“Our work culture revolves around producing our best efforts and endeavours. This is easy when we are passionate about real estate.

“We have a strong and dynamic team that does not settle for status quo. While we look to creating a competitive work environment, it is also grounded in a familial bond,” he tells TheEdgeProperty.com.

Recently, Hartamas Real Estate bagged four awards — Top Real Estate Firm, Top Commercial Real Estate Firm, Top Project Marketing Firm and Top Commercial Real Estate Negotiator (REN) — at the annual National Real Estate Awards 2016 organised by the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA).

When asked what makes Hartamas Real Estate different from other industry players, its director of marketing and sales Kevin Lim says: “One very clear characteristic that defines us is professionalism.”

“Once a buyer sees our name they can be assured and they can afford to do less due diligence because they know they can trust us. That is our trademark and the comments we get from our buyers. And in a soft market like now, some people in the industry resort to shady ways to maintain their sales numbers but for us we definitely do not participate in such things.

“Also, our clients know that we are there for them. These awards are just a reflection of how we have served our clients,” he says.

Having grown to five offices across Malaysia and with as many as 250 employees, Eric is looking to expand the agency to the northern states of Malaysia as well as China in 2017.

“We’re currently in Kota Damansara, Overseas Union Garden (OUG), Setia Alam and Johor Bahru. We’re looking to expand to Penang and China as we have quite a number of Chinese customers,” he says.

On the pull factors for Chinese investors to Malaysia, Eric says the Malaysian property market is one of the most liberal across Southeast Asia.

“If you go to Singapore, you have to pay a higher price for stamp duty and there are also more restrictions. Same goes for Australia.

“While in Indonesia and the Philippines, you cannot buy freehold properties. But in Malaysia, foreign investors can buy freehold as well as leasehold properties.

“We’ve attracted quite a number of Chinese investors with deep pockets and very low margin of financing,” he adds.

On the other hand, Hartamas Real Estate has also been aggressive in selling overseas properties to Malaysians. “We [started] pushing our foreign market sales when we began seeing the local market slowdown here,” Eric offers, adding that properties in London and Australia remain popular among Malaysian investors.

According to Kevin, education plays a large role in property sales in London and Australia. “We have many investors who are investing in London so that their kids can stay there when they send them to study there. Not to mention our government agencies who are also investing in London properties. Same goes for Australia,” he explains.

Eric also notes that despite the soft Malaysian property market, the agency has managed to maintain its sales growth.

“Our growth is still there. For the following year, we hope to maintain the momentum or push even further,” says Eric.

This story first appeared in TheEdgeProperty.com pullout on Oct 28, 2016, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily every Friday. Download TheEdgeProperty.com pullout here for free.