KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Governing Council based at Parliament Square, London has named RICS Asia chairman Ong See Lian as its president-elect and president.

This appointment makes Ong the first non-British person to take up a leadership position in RICS in its 140-year history.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) is helping its parent company, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), to prepare the masterplan to develop the Rubber Research Insitute (RRI) land in Sungai Buloh, according to a report by RHB Research Institute yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Land & Development Bhd recently completed Centrio, a mixed commercial development with mainly SoHo (small office/home office) apartments in the Pantai area in Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Land & Development Bhd expects 50% occupancy by year-end for its newly-completed Centrio development in the highly popular Pantai Hillpark address.

HONG KONG: Amid strong public pressure, the developer behind the construction of a private retreat at scenic Sai Wan beach says he has decided to suspend the work temporarily until a solution acceptable to all parties is found.

KUALA LUMPUR: 1 Mont’Kiara (1MK), a mall and office development in Mont’Kiara is believed to have been sold for RM333 million, in what is likely to set a new benchmark pricing for the Mont’Kiara area.

SHANGHAI: China plans to start levying property tax in 2012 in a pilot programme that will first be rolled out in several cities, the National Business Daily reported on Thursday, July 22, citing unidentified participants of a seminar held by the Ministry of Finance.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sunway City Bhd (SunCity)’s Human Capital Development Department, under its property development division, won the HR Achievement Silver Award, the property developer announced in a statement on Wednesday, July 21.

KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Investment Bank Bhd, the stabilising manager of Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust (Sunway REIT), has purchased units in the trust again.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia on Wednesday, July 21, the trust bought some 1.8 million units in the trust at 89.5 sen on July 20.

KUALA LUMPUR: Nearly all of the 5% decline in housing production was on the multifamily side in June, which fell 21.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 95,000 units, according to newly released figures by the US Commerce Department.