Dynasty: The Lees build on the family honour for their IPO

Oriental Realty has come a long way from its humble start in 1988. It was founded by S S Lee and he now runs the company with his five children.

According to Lee’s third son and Oriental Realty’s current CEO Eddie Lee, his father worked for more than 20 years in several multinational companies before he decided to strike out on his own.

“My dad told us when he started Oriental Realty that he had spent too many years making money for other people and he felt that it was time to start his own business,” says Eddie.

Its first office in Kampung Attap was modest, with a sales team of 15 negotiators. However, business did not take off as intended.

“The business almost failed twice. Back then my dad was paying the negotiators salaries; it was only after the business model was changed to commission-based did the business boom,” says Eddie.

Today, Oriental Realty has more than 1,000 negotiators in 26 branches nationwide.

The elder Lee has since taken on an advisory role and left the management of the company to his five children. In order oldest to youngest, they are: Alvin, Benny, Eddie, Jastin and Jennifer. The siblings joined the company at different times.

Eddie was studying to be an accountant when he decided to join the family business.

“I was in college at the time. I remember looking at Alvin and thinking, he has a lot of money to spend. I got curious and asked him whether it was easy to become an agent and he said it was. ‘Let dad show you how to do the job.’

“I thought to myself, becoming an accountant takes a long time and the starting salary was only about RM600. But if I’m an agent, one deal would give me RM2,000 to RM3,000. So, why not give it a try? If I fail, I still have my accounting degree to fall back on. I’ve never looked back,” shares Eddie.

For director Jastin Lee, his entry into the family business wasn’t as smooth. Jastin has a degree in electrical engineering and worked for a corporation for eight years. After his older brothers shared their business plans with him, Jastin decided to join Oriental Realty.

“Joining Oriental Realty was a culture shock. I was used to working with clear systems and procedures but in our company, everything was done based on practice. It took me some time to get the hang of things and get back on track. I think I was really lost and looked pale at the time,” says Jastin with a laugh.

“Chinaman’s business is always like that in the beginning. One person would carry a few positions. That’s why when we started to grow, we put in procedures and systems to ensure the company would run smoothly,” adds Eddie.

While the brothers admit there are pros and cons working in a family, they wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“The good thing about working with family is that everything is transparent and we can discuss whatever issues we have. At the same time, you will get different opinions and objectives on certain things. That is why each of us has a different division to manage. By having us focus on our individual divisions, we can reduce conflicts,” says Eddie.

“Alvin handles research and development and advises us on how to position the company, and Benny trains the staff and work with the team leaders.

“Our sister, Jennifer has a degree in business administration, so she’s the head of admin, while Jastin helps with the operation and systems.

“And our dad is the shifu, he knows everything there is to know about real estate, so we count on his experience,” says Eddie.

A grand plan 

The company’s first branch opened in 2004 in Setapak and in 2006, expansion started on a large scale.

“Even before I joined the company, my older brothers were already telling our Dad about new concepts for the company. I had observed real estate [agencies] overseas and many have branches and franchises. We shared our expansion idea with our dad but he didn’t think it would work,” recalls Eddie.

Eventually, the three older brothers decided to go ahead and expand on a small scale to prove to their father that the plan would work.

“We opened four fully owned branches in two years and then Alvin came up with the idea of franchising. We eventually have eight franchised offices but we found that it’s hard to [keep] control.

“So, we then moved into partnerships which gave us more control. After the success of the first few branches, our dad was finally convinced of our plan and concept,” says Eddie.

Despite all the work the family has put into growing the business, Eddie does not expect the next generation to take over the business if they are not interested. In fact, he has bigger plans for Oriental Realty.

“We don’t mind opening the business up to others. Our goal, before we retire, is to turn Oriental Realty into a public listed company. That way, our family can stay on as shareholders without having to run the business. We will need talents to join us to help build our brand and operate the business eventually,” says Eddie.

Work has started to put this plan into motion. Among its business segments are property management, renovation and construction, Malaysia My Second Home agent, market research, international property marketing and property development.

“Our property development division has not embarked on any projects yet. It is important for us to learn the business first. Right now, we are exploring overseas collaboration in countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

“We hope to set up partnerships (with real estate companies) and open one or two offices in Asia soon. We are in the midst of discussions. The Malaysian economy is not doing too well now, so we think this is the right time to expand our business regionally and the move will also help our branding,” says Eddie.

This article first appeared in property+, a section of the digitaledge Daily, on Aug 14, 2015. Download property+ here.