RISM: Real estate valuers are professionally qualified property managers

PETALING JAYA (Aug 7): Real estate valuers are also professionally qualified property managers, and these two functions of the real estate valuer are stated in the Valuers Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981 (Act 242), said the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM).

RISM was responding to Parti Keadilan Rakyat member of parliament Wong Chen who, in a press statement last week, questioned the relevance of the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents (Amendment) Bill 2017 which is currently being debated in Parliament.

He said the the Bill, which intends to have both valuers and property managers regulated under the purview of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), was  “illogical” as these were two distinctly separate professions  

Currently, property valuation falls under the purview of MoF while property management, which has to do with organisation, management and maintenance of buildings, is under the purview of the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (KKBPKT).

However, RISM president Datuk Lau Wai Seang clarified that the original “General Practice Surveyors (GPS)” term which RISM and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS,UK) originally used has a scope encompassing a wide range of fields including valuation, estate agency, property consultant/research, property management, property consultancy and plant and machinery valuation.

In addition, Section 19 of the Valuers Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981 (Act 242) states that subject to the provisions of this Act, a registered valuer or appraiser who has been issued with the authority to practice by the Board “shall be entitled to practise the  profession and be authorised to undertake the valuation of all lands and buildings and all interest therein including furniture, fixtures, trade, stocks, plant, machinery, equipment, for feasibility studies, project management, court proceedings, arbitration or other purposes as well as property management and the making or checking of inventories of furniture, fixtures, trade stocks, plant or machinery and other effects”.

“After the Act was first legalised, there was a decision to create a separate register for Estate Agents to legitimise and regulate those who were then performing the work illegally. This was a chance given to many brokers/illegal agents to come forward, and be registered as estate agents. This was done via a separate register under the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act,” Lau explained.

However, she highlighted that GPS were required to take a second licence/registration with the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents, under the MoF, in order to have an estate agency practice.

“In the past few years, the board has issued the Manual of Property Management Standards to expand the property management field to non-valuers in the industry although the Act says that only owners, registered valuers and some real estate agents can practise property management.

“We believe that similarly, just like how real estate agency practise was previously expanded, we can do the same for property management. This will require the registered valuers to take a third licence with the board in order to undertake property management,” said Lau.

She added that the GPS and the board are working to further expand the profession to enable and regulate a wider pool of practitioners.