National Real Estate Awards receives 31 submissions

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 23): The annual MIEA National Real Estate Awards (NREA) organised by the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) has received 31 submissions and more than 20 winners will be announced at the gala dinner to be held on Oct 1 at Sime Darby Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

“Initially, we were concerned because the market was a bit slow. But looking at the submissions that we have received, we’re quite happy with the response,” NREA coordinator K Soma Sundram told TheEdgeProperty.com.

TheEdgeProperty.com is sponsoring two awards: The Most Innovative Firm Award and the MIEA-TheEdgeProperty.com Top Online Real Estate Negotiator Award. Other notable awards to be given on Oct 1 include the Million Dollar Roof Top Award and The Lifetime Achievement Award.

According to Soma, the Million Dollar Roof Top Award will be presented to three estate agents who collected a minimum of RM1 million professional fees in 2015 and is a recognition of the top talents in the industry. Also, The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to the personality who has contributed significantly to the growth and development of the industry over the years.

“Many real estate agents and negotiators work really, really hard and it is important that we recognise their hard work by giving them the recognition that they deserve,” he said, adding that as an association that represents the majority of real estate agents, MIEA is in the best position to award the deserving ones.

“The awards presented by us have been developed over the past eight years and are judged independently. As an association, we’re trying to set a good profile of the industry.

“Hardly anyone aspires to become an estate agent. When we recognise the top real estate firms, agents and negotiators in the country, people will then realise that having a career in real estate is not a bad thing,” he said.

This year’s NREA is seeing greater participation from various states beyond Selangor and Kuala Lumpur such as from Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.

Meanwhile, NREA organising chairman and MIEA deputy president Eric Lim added that MIEA looks forward to receiving even more submissions for next year’s awards.

On the MIEA-TheEdgeProperty.com Top Online Real Estate Negotiator Award category, Soma said the idea for the award stemmed from the usage of online tools among real estate agents and negotiators.

“We thought it would be good for us to recognise those who are using online tools for research and marketing purposes as well as to communicate with their clients. The criteria for the award focuses on their creativity in utilising these tools,” said Soma.

However, despite the onslaught of digital technology disrupting the real estate industry, Lim thinks that the real estate industry isn’t heavily affected by it.

“At the end of the day, when it comes to dealing with clients, we still need the human touch,” he said.

Soma concurred as he believes technology is only an enabler for the real estate industry, as not everything can be done online.

“While technology has helped to advance sales and marketing methods, the selling part remains the fundamental point here. There are many things that you still have to follow-up, because you’re not just selling a product.

“Technology makes things easier but the aspect of attending to clients’ needs still has to be done face-to-face. The selling part doesn’t change, you will still have to sit down and think about what they want and identify the kind of property that they’re looking for. All these cannot be done online,” he added.

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This story first appeared in TheEdgeProperty.com pullout on Sept 23, 2016, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily every Friday. Download TheEdgeProperty.com pullout here for free.