OSK Property aims high

“INTEGRATED property” seems to be the favourite phrase of OSK Property Holdings Bhd CEO Ong Ghee Bin during an interview with City & Country.

This development type, which usually includes a hotel and shopping mall, is the direction OSK Property is taking because it will allow the company to tap the expertise of parent company OSK Holdings Bhd’s other business pillars.

OSK Holdings last year restructured its businesses under property, construction, hospitality, manufacturing as well as financial services and timeshare. In the revamp, OSK Property and PJ Development Holdings Bhd (PJD) were merged into one business entity with a single identity and brand and called OSK Property. Ong, 55, was appointed last July to oversee the property arm.

While an integrated development is not a new concept, Ong acknowledges that it is a good model for the company as it has in-house expertise to complement integrated properties, such as the hospitality division that manages the Swiss Garden brand. In the property division, there are teams that look after shopping malls and offices.

OSK Property’s current investment assets include the Atria Shopping Gallery in Damansara Jaya and Faber Tower in Taman Desa, both of which are located in the Klang Valley. Ong says the company plans to grow its property management portfolio in the long term but declines to disclose the target.

“We want to increase our recurring income portfolio and one of the assets being looked at is a mall. However, we also want to be cautious as we don’t want to build a mall just anywhere,” he explains. “We want to look at the supply and demand as well as saturation. We will start on a mall in Sungai Petani, Kedah, this year because the town doesn’t have a decent one. However, the market in the Klang Valley is saturated, so we will hold back on such developments [there].”

The merger also resulted in a bigger property group for OSK Group and all projects developed by the group going forward will be under OSK Property. Ong says the advantage of the merger is that it combines the different experiences and product offerings of the two companies.

PJD had been around since the 1970s while OSK Property was established in 2009 and has since introduced innovative products that have won it awards. Ong acknowledges that the merger amalgamates PJD’s vast experience in delivering projects with OSK Property’s innovative approach.

Ong also hopes to implement his business and management philosophies in OSK Property with the first being “building trust”. “Some use the word ‘honest’ but I like to use the word ‘trust’. I tell all my people, as professional managers, first we have to build trust among our stakeholders. Whether you are dealing with your shareholders, customers, internal peers or suppliers, you have to be truthful. If there is any issue, we will sit down and talk about it. Then they will be happy to work with you. Suppliers and purchasers will also come back to you.”

His second belief is to act professionally in the best, not personal, interests of the company when making decisions. “Lastly, we have to give our best to everything we do. For this, I will use the word ‘excellent’.”

Housekeeping and training

Ong expects the local economy and property market to remain soft this year. Accordingly, the property developer is taking a cautious approach. “At the same time, we are optimistic. We want to be ready when the market recovers because it is not all doom. As an organisation, there are a lot of things we can do, such as housekeeping and training people so they are better equipped,” says Ong.

He also sees the lacklustre economy and property market as a good time for the merger as it has allowed him to combine two cultures into one. Including subdivisions property management, leasing and retail, OSK Property now boosts a total staff strength of 400.

“When the property market is hot, everyone rushes to launch and sell. The internal process and best practice then start to lag because people are too busy with new launches. We will be doing some housekeeping and putting best practice in place, so the team will be prepared when the market recovers. Customer expectation of quality is high nowadays and developers have to consistently provide that. I hope customers think of OSK Property as a developer that delivers on its promises,” he says.

Moving forward, Ong notes that the focus of the property developer is to deliver projects that meet customer expectations, right from the design stage, to justify why they should buy its properties.

It will concentrate on customer experience, from the day customers walk into its showroom until the day they get the key, he says. In fact, OSK Property set up a customer service team last year to quickly deal with complaints. The company will, in turn, get feedback from customers, which will help it improve things in its future projects.

“It is a continuous improvement process,” Ong says. “So we have to place more emphasis on details. I think that’s how property developers will be able to compete with each other. Otherwise, there won’t be any difference between you and another developer. It is about how you can become better.”

Through the merger, OSK Property has accumulated some 2,500 acres of undeveloped land, which is expected to generate an estimated gross development value (GDV) of RM8 billion.

“There is a lot of land on offer and as our cash balance is strong, we are in a good position to buy but we want to be cautious,” Ong explains. “In this kind of market, we have to be careful not to stretch our finances.”

New launches

This year, OSK Property will launch its first overseas project. It obtained the development approval for a five-acre parcel in Melbourne, Australia, last year. The company is looking to develop an integrated development with an estimated GDV of A$2.8 billion (roughly RM8.28 billion) on the land, which is located in the Southbank area next to Yarra River.

“Though we will be launching the first phase of the Melbourne project by the end of this year, Malaysia remains our playground,” Ong says.

The developer will launch several serviced apartment projects in the country, including the second phase of Timurbay Seafront Residence in Kuantan, Pahang, and Luminari in Harbour Place, Butterworth, next month. Also planned are a bungalow development in Sungai Petani and Phase 2 of Windmill Upon Hills in Genting Highlands, Pahang. Altogether, the GDV of new launches in Malaysia this year is an estimated RM1.06 billion.

Recently, OSK Property handed over several projects, including Phase 1 of You City in Cheras, You Residences. “The next phase, You Vista, will be handed over in the middle of the year,” Ong says. “We haven’t started on the third phase yet because we are planning a mall there and the market is a bit soft for malls in the Klang Valley. It will be connected directly to an upcoming MRT station there. That is a very valuable asset and we want to make sure that we get it right.”

OSK Property also just handed over Paragon, the first development of Pan’gaea — a freehold and self-contained mixed-use development in Cyberjaya — while the owners of Mirage Residence in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng got their keys at the end of last year. Serviced apartment development, You One, in USJ, meanwhile, will be handed over in the next two months.

New challenges

Prior to joining OSK Group, Ong was an executive director of property development division (central region) at local conglomerate Sunway Bhd where he had worked for 25 years. Talking about his current role, he admits that he took some time to decide to join OSK Property as he had worked for the same company for 25 years and was nearing his retirement.

“Before I joined OSK Property, I knew certain systems here might not be as advanced as where I came from. However, I see this as a challenge and an opportunity for me to help the company move forward. The system can be improved on, things can be made more efficient and products to be delivered will be better. I see these as challenges and something I can add value to.”

“The DNA of the group interested me. I met Tan Sri Ong (CEO and group MD) and what I saw was that he was a prudent businessman and the company was financially solid. I also saw it as an opportunity for me to do something and to contribute whatever knowledge and experience I had to take the group to the next level before I retire.”

The third of five children, Ong started his career in the property industry after he graduated with a degree in civil engineering from University of Malaya in 1985.

“[Coming] from a poor family, we didn’t have much career advice, so we just went with our strengths,” recalls the KL boy. “I was strong in mathematics and physics, so naturally engineering was the first choice. Fortunately for me, I managed to enter UM to study civil engineering.”

Although the country was in a recession when he graduated, Ong landed a job in an engineering consultancy firm where he was in the structural division for three years until he volunteered to become the resident engineer of Universiti Utara Malaysia, a project in Kedah in which he was involved from the design stage in order to gain both office and site experience to qualify as a professional engineer.

“That was the vision [to qualify as a professional engineer] at the time. I had enough office experience, so I volunteered to be the site engineer,” he says. “Once I got onto the site, I had more free time because site work is not as stressful as office work. I started to look around and at what I was doing and realised that the consultancy line was not the career I wanted to build.”

Hence, he started looking around for other opportunities. He then applied for the job of senior project executive at Sunway Property, marking the start of his journey in the property development industry.

“In those days, we [Sunway’s property arm] were very small and we had just started the Bandar Sunway development. It was very good for us young people because we got to do everything. I also had very good seniors, like Mr Ngian (Siew Siong), Mr Yeow (Thit Sang) and others, whose strengths I tapped into. They put in all the correct processes and standard operating procedures for the company.

So, you could say I grow up with Sunway Group, which has grown from a single township developer to what it is today. I was lucky to have been involved in property development and investment, which put me in a very good position.”

Ong was involved in various major developments in Sunway Property, namely Sunway Lost World of Tambun, Bandar Sunway Semenyih and Sunway South Quay. He also helped deliver Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall and its extensions.

“My personal satisfaction is that I delivered projects on time and below budget, and the stakeholders were happy,” he says. “Especially the university … I still remember those days when Monash and Sunway universities were sharing the same campus and we needed to build a campus for Monash University. They had a medical faculty and the situation was that the medical students would study in Australia in their first and second years and then come back to study in Malaysia in the third year. We had to complete the campus on time for the students to use it.”

Check out The Edge Reference Price for Mirage Residence here.

Do not ask your BFF about the value of your home. Click here at The Edge Reference Price to find out.

This article first appeared in City & Country, a pullout of The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on Feb 22, 2016. Subscribe here for your personal copy.