Moving beyond property valuations

DESPITE a very busy schedule and numerous meetings to attend before his upcoming retirement on Oct 5, Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) director general Datuk Faizan Abdul Rahman was his usual enthusiastic self as he greeted TheEdgeProperty.com. “I had a sudden urgent meeting, but don’t worry, I have sorted it out and someone else has taken my place for the meeting,” says Faizan, who holds a masters in Facilities Management and Asset Maintenance from Heriot-Watt University, UK.

Faizan is a well-known figure in the property valuations industry having served in JPPH since 1979. Among the various posts he has held through the years include stints as the state valuation director of Terengganu, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. He was also the director of the National Property Information Centre (Napic) and the deputy director of general valuation (Technical). In March 2015, he was appointed JPPH director general.

He is also currently the president of the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents (BOVAEA), Malaysia, the Asean Valuers Association’s (AVA) vice-president, and president of the AVA Malaysian chapter since March 2015 as well as president of the Business Valuation Association Malaysia (BVAM) since its formation in late 2015. A fellow of the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, many may not know that Faizan is also an accredited intellectual property valuer by Bern University Switzerland, an accredited business valuer by the International Association of Consultants, Valuators and Analysts (IACVA), a trained plant and machinery valuer as well as an accredited trainer by SMR Group.

His legacy

When Faizan set out on his path to serve as the JPPH director general, he had several goals in mind.

“I suppose every director general wants to leave something as his legacy. I am no different. As my tenure was a short one, I had identified several things I wanted to accomplish and had expressly told this to all my staff on the first day of my appointment,” recalls Faizan.

One of them was to offer the sales of rental data. This is currently pending the Finance Minister’s approval on the fee for the sales of data. “We are ready to roll it out. Hopefully, we can get the approval soon,” says Faizan.

He also introduced business valuation as a new work scope for valuers in both JPPH and the private sector.

“Business valuation is currently being carried out rather quietly, mostly by financial analysts and accountants in the accounting firms. Real estate valuers get involved in this when accountants refer the landed properties of the companies being valued to property valuers. Many companies are real estate asset-based so it makes sense that property valuers should also be doing business valuation,” he says.

Besides, JPPH has also received requests from government agencies such as the Insolvency Department to conduct business valuations.

“In August 2015, we brought in an organisation based in Canada known as the International Association of Consultants, Valuators and Analysts to conduct a course, run an examination and accredit successful candidates. As many as 40 candidates (16 from JPPH and 24 from the private sector) went through the course and 39 were successfully accredited. We went on to form an association known as the Business Valuation Association Malaysia and I was appointed its president. BVAM then applied to be a charter of IACVA and it was formally admitted,” he adds.

An interesting fact to note is that JPPH is a world-class valuation organisation that carries out valuations for 40 different purposes including stamp duties, estate distribution, housing loans and compulsory acquisition.

“In contrast, government valuation organisations in advanced countries such as the UK and Canada do only rating valuation. We also have the National Institute of Valuation (Inspen) as our training institute. A number of years ago, the president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) visited Inspen and he was very impressed as no government department in the UK had a training institute of the same magnitude,” Faizan adds.

On the Property Market Report produced by Napic, Faizan believes that there is no other property market report in the world that comes close in terms of being as comprehensive as it covers every part of the country and all sectors of the property market.

“In other countries, this information is produced by small private organisations which do not enjoy the same infrastructure that we have,” he says.

A need to do more

However, Faizan stresses that JPPH is certainly not resting on its laurels as it needs continuous improvement.

“JPPH needs to carry out tasks that are highly technical such as intellectual property and business valuations, feasibility studies and property management as well as to increase the export of our expertise overseas. We will get nowhere if we continue to do the run of the mill cases such as stamp duty valuations, which currently comprise 2/3 of our workload,” Faizan notes.

“The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia will be implementing a self-assessment of stamp duty valuation soon. Although some of my officers view this as a threat to JPPH, I view this as an opportunity. This will mean that we can redeploy our staff to do more high-value tasks. Right now JPPH cannot do much in other areas because we are bogged down with stamp duty valuations,” he says.

“My officers and I have property management degrees but ironically we do not carry out property management for the government. The only exception is Inspen which we manage ourselves. Right now, we do not dare to market our expertise in this field as we are already bogged down with our current tasks. JPPH is also the best organisation in the country to carry out feasibility studies of development projects as we have a wealth of property information and the ability to secure information that is held by other government agencies,” Faizan explains.

Sustainable market growth

Nevertheless, Faizan hopes to see sustainable growth in the property sector and expects the property market to remain manageable next year despite the current slowdown.

“In my opinion, the property market is expected to soften in 2017 on account of the slow pace of economic growth. Household sentiment remains low, signalling insecurity of income growth and employment as well as increase in the cost of living. But, I hope to see positive prospects in the economy with the materialisation of major developments such as the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Bandar Malaysia and Kwasa Damansara to name a few,” he offers.

“The main focus in the residential sector would be on affordable housing. Retail and office sub-sectors will remain stable but with downward pressure on rentals and occupancies as more space comes on-stream. Overall, the market will remain manageable despite the slowdown,” he notes.

What are his plans after retirement from JPPH? Faizan says he has not thought about it yet. “To tell [you] the truth I have not planned anything as I am still too busy to do so. I would like to take a break first, perhaps move around the country visiting relatives and siblings to catch up with them. After I get bored (which I think won’t be long), I will think of something to do,” he chuckles.

Happy retirement Datuk Faizan and TheEdgeProperty.com wishes you the very best in all your future undertakings!

This story first appeared in TheEdgeProperty.com pullout on Sept 30, 2016, which comes with The Edge Financial Daily every Friday. Download TheEdgeProperty.com pullout here for free.