Also, we recognise the importance of the youth wing, in which we started three years ago. Not only do we have an MIEA youth wing in Kuala Lumpur, but we now have them in Penang, Johor, KK and Kuching. This all started because we wanted to develop the youths. And for the first time at this year’ s MAREC Convention, we will have a separate national youth convention which will be held a day before the MAREC Convention. For the first time, youths from all these four states will converge to have their own national initiative. You see, I’ m a baby boomer. How I think and how the millennials think are very different. They are full of energy and they do things differently. They are more tech savvy and use a lot of social media, and they also have different and newer ideas. And we recognise that. We don’ t know what will come out of this convention, but I’ m sure that it will be something very exciting.
QThis is your last year as President of MIEA. What’ s the next step for you?
My two-year term will end on the next AGM which will be on 22nd April, which I will then go through a transition period before fully handing the responsibilities to the next president and deputy president. My responsibilities and focus thus far have been to enhance MIEA’ s administrative capabilities. You see, we are an NGO, and we all work voluntarily. So we have to ensure that whatever program we undertake, whether it be short, medium and long-term perspectives, secures continuity. I have put in place, a few exciting programmes that I hope will be continued such as ARENA, IRC, and on a more local scale, MASPEX, the secondary properties exhibition which we will re-engineer into MIEA Property Expo. Now, this will also include primary properties, but, only agents can represent in the expo. So, if a developer wants to showcase their property, they have to appoint an agent to represent them. Developers aren’ t allowed to sell. This way, it still maintains its position as an agents’ exhibition, but this time, selling both primary and secondary properties. With time, we realise that we need to evolve and relook at how we do things.
The other initiative which is longer term is to see that all registered agents and negotiators become a member of MIEA. We’ ve got 22,000 registered real estate negotiators and we’ ve got 2000 real estate agents registered in the country now. I’ ve already written to the Ministry of Finance to make it mandatory so that we will be on par with the Bar Council where we can also make regulations. As you know, we have a big problem with a lot of illegals( unlicensed agents). But if everyone that’ s registered becomes a member of MIEA, then it will agonise the illegals. Why? Because we then have a bigger, stronger MIEA and we can have the authority to prosecute anyone caught making illegal deals. This is very powerful to regulate because we want to make sure that everyone has a level playing field.
The other thing that I want to focus in the long term is the transformation of our website. The website is already going through some changes, like today, we already have a payment gateway. I also want to include a property listings section to make it easier for all the members and it will be free. I want to promote co-agency among practitioners and this is a way of giving back to the members. This is one of the things that I want to see happen. What I want to see now, is for more registrants to become members because when there are enough of us, only then can we bring in more initiatives and to have a louder, stronger voice when we speak with the authorities. As I said before, the process has already begun, we’ ve already written to the ministry. Just like the Bar Council, if this succeeds, there are so many positive things that we can do in the estate agency industry. Sometimes, you just have to help yourself.
Q
Is there anything else you want to highlight?
MIEA has been very well received in the last few years since working together with BOVAEA,( Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Malaysia), especially in the handling of illegal agents. I want to highlight that we have a section on the website where the public can file their complaints about any illegal activities that are happening. Another thing I’ d like to put forth is that we’ re in the process of amending the MIEA constitution. We haven’ t done a constitution amendment in fourteen years and our acts and guidelines are outdated. Some of the things in the constitution will be taken out and to do that, we will be taking it to the bylaws so that we can have greater flexibilities to adhere to on what is happening to the current market at the time. So, with all of this in place, I expect and hope to see a much stronger MIEA in the future.
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