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SETIA ALAM (March 4): Property agents should shift their mindsets and explore more options in terms of property selling, according to Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Managers Bhd head of investment Siva Shanker.
“It’s getting so tough to sell properties; it seems to me that this (being a real estate agent) may be a sunset industry.
"[So], I’m asking everybody to shift their mindsets because in a good market, you can sell a lot of things to a lot of people but in a down market like today’s, the REITs can be your single largest clients,” he said during his presentation entitled “REIT and how property agents can benefit from it” at the two-day Malaysian Annual Real Estate Convention 2017 (MAREC’17) which began yesterday (March 3).
The annual convention is organised by the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents.
He also noted that there is not much difference between selling properties to REITs and to normal homebuyers.
The REIT may have higher threshold of due diligence, said Siva, adding that Axis REIT started business with RM300 million worth of assets in 2005 and has achieved RM2.24 billion worth of assets as of December 2016.
During the Q&A session after the presentation, Axis REIT director Stephen Tew elaborated on Siva's views. He said the biggest challenge in this market is to get funding.
“You get a buyer and the buyer cannot get a loan. But when you deal with REITs, money isn’t an issue.
Also, after you have sold your clients’ assets to a REIT, they [get to] enjoy tax exemption, which is a great incentive for them,” he noted. TheEdgeProperty.com is MAREC’17's media partner.
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