Clearing the misconceptions
20/08/2005 NST-PROP

We at the Property Consultancy and Valuation Surveying Division of the Institution of Surveyors laud PropertyTimes for taking up the issue of who should be permitted to practice property management as the matter affects owners, tenants and the public at large.

Many shopping complexes and highrise offices in Malaysia are managed by building owners who have employed various individuals to carry out the tasks involved.

These individuals may or may not have qualifications in property management. However, the building owners have the absolute prerogative to employ anybody they deem suitable to be their property or shopping complex manager.

There is no legislation, existing or intended, to take away the rights of owners to appoint anybody as their property/complex manager.

In managing their own buildings, some owners set up separate management companies (that they also own) to hire the property managers and staff, instead of employing them with the same company owning the real estate. These management companies will then bill the firm owning the asset for their salaries and other associated costs.

The authorities have allowed this practice in the past as essentially, both the building and the company managing it belongs to the same party.

What the current legislation, the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act, does is control the persons who can carry out the services of managing property, other than hotels, that belong to another for a fee.

Any person who intends to set up a property management company to manage a property that does not belong to him and charge a fee for the service should be properly qualified to do so. Such a company’s directors and personnel should have basic qualifications in property management, coupled with adequate experience to undertake the task.

In this connection, a few universities offer property management degree courses, such as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Malaya.

Many foreign universities also offer the discipline, and their degrees are monitored by the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents (BVAEA) to ensure their level of education matches the standards required.

Recognised courses are well grounded in all aspects of property, including shopping centre management as well as estate agency and valuation, as these are important in order for a person to be a competent property manager whose primary function is maintaining the value of the asset.

After completing their degrees, some graduates go on to become property managers, while some become estate agents or marketing managers and others, valuers. For various reasons in the past, many opted to be valuers rather than property managers.

However, this is changing today as a result of the growing need for the latter, leading to more and more graduates working for building owners and even property management companies.

Due to the shortage of graduates entering this profession in the past, building owners had to hire persons qualified in related disciplines, such as engineers and architects, to manage their buildings. Nevertheless, no matter how well they handle the job function, the fact remains these persons are not specifically trained in property management.

As I said earlier, building owners have the absolute prerogative to employ anybody they deem fit for the job. However, as the law stands, property managers who provide their service for a fee must obtain formal tertiary education in property management, be trained in the profession and pass the Test of Professional Competence (TPC) before being allowed to practice.

Admittedly, while holders of general degrees cannot claim to be experts in aspects such as shopping centre management, universities certainly can produce graduates with the ability to understand the subject and its basics. Consequently, associations have been formed to further educate these graduates as well as unqualified persons on shopping centre management.

These “on-the-job” teachings are done mostly in two-day intervals, employing various modules conducted by either more experienced members or others deemed “experts” in a particular field.

Upon completion of the modules within a specified timeframe, attendees are issued with certificates.

The BVAEA has given “continuous professional development” (or CPD) hours for members that have attended these courses, depending on the duration, but this is not to be confused as its accreditation of the certificates.

The BVAEA intends to ensure that those practising property management, including shopping centre management, for a fee should at least have a recognised degree, experience and passed the TPC. This is similar with any other profession requiring basic tertiary education on a general subject.

However, the BVAEA in its wisdom has made an impartial decision to recognise property managers other than those who have received formal tertiary education in property management and intends to amend the legislation. Once passed, these property managers will be allowed to practice in their proven field of expertise.

As such, those other than valuers who can show competence and experience in property management stand to gain if the Act is amended.

It may be possible for those certified persons to become registered property managers and be allowed to practice their proven field under the proposed amendment to this law.

ABDULLAH THALITH MD THANI,

Chairman,
Property Consultancy and Valuation Surveying Division,
The Institution of Surveyors, Malaysia