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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Property Incorporated (MPI) will be heading to Tokyo with its Malaysia Property Fair 2009 to be held on April 25-26.
The event is a follow-up to MPI's successful seminar-cum-exhibition held in December last year, MPI executive director Yu Kee Su said in a statement on April 6.
MPI is a Malaysian government initiative set up to promote and brand Malaysia as an international property investment destination. Also involved is the International Real Estate Federation (Fiabci), Malaysian chapter in collaboration with the National Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association, the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents and the private sector.
Yu added last year’s event attracted 1,000 visitors and there was also positive feedback from the 11 property development companies, which displayed their products at the two-day event.
The successful even had prompted potential Japanese investors to visit some of the developers’ projects in Malaysia. "Sales value closed, limited to those disclosed to us to date, stands at over RM4 million,” Yu said.
The roundtable meeting session with a group of institutional investors at the December event also prompted one of the parties to take a trip to Malaysia to gather more data about investing in Malaysia real estate on a large scale.
"MPI is now following-up on this potential institutional investment party to facilitate its business development arrangements with local property development companies. We are confident the interest shown by this leading Japanese institutional investor will encourage others to follow suit soon,” Yu said.
It is organising the event again with the support of the Japan Long Stay Foundation, Japan HSBC Premier Banking and Tourism Malaysia Tokyo.
This event will be in line with MPI’s policy of organising focused seminars-cum-exhibitions for a target market of serious investors in real estate outside their country of origin.
It will also enable developers to interact better with potential foreign investors. Visitors to the event can attend a two-day seminar boasting topics related to Malaysia and opportunities available in its real estate. The presenters include representatives from Tourism Malaysia Tokyo, MPI and HSBC.
“With the global economic downturn, we are targeting retirees and soon-to-be retired who are encouraged by their government to explore long term stays outside their country as a means of stretching their pension income as far as possible,” he said.
The Property Fair is one of the key events in MPI’s calendar for 2009 targeted at its Asia-Pacific market including Singapore, China and Hong Kong.
Other regions which MPI is looking into are Europe (in particular, Britain) as well as west Asia, which includes the Middle East and India.
He said the current global economic slowdown should not affect its efforts to position Malaysia as a preferred international real estate investment destination.
“We need to keep Malaysia and its real estate on the radar of international investors, more so, now or we may risk losing a strong footing to capture market interest when the market picks up again. However, during this slowdown, the marketing expenditure will be kept as lean as possible,” he said,
Limited exhibition booth space is still available and open to property developers, estate agents and MM2H agents. Registration for participation by exhibitors will close on April 10.
