KUALA LUMPUR: The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) wants to promote its Malaysian Property Expo (Mapex) as an international real estate event.
“We want Malaysia to be a place where international visitors can come and shop for international properties like those in Australia or London without having to fly over to those countries to do so,” said Datuk Ng Seing Liong, organising chairman and Rehda immediate past president, during a press conference.
He said Rehda is working with organisers of international real estate investment exhibition Mipim Asia to further promote Mapex as an international platform for Malaysian and international property exhibitors. According to Ng, Mapex will be the ideal platform for gathering real estate and related experts and companies under one roof.
“Mapex is the ideal platform for gathering property developers, financiers, legal experts and also property consultants under one roof to assist the home buying public in making informed decisions in their property investments,” he said, adding that he will be in Hong Kong during the Mipim Asia exhibition from Nov 7 to 9 to promote Mapex 2013 which will focus on international properties.
Rehda is expecting at least RM500 million worth of properties to be on sale at the upcoming Klang Valley Mapex in October. “We do not have the actual figures just yet but anticipate half a billion ringgit worth of properties to be showcased during the exhibition,” Ng said.
The upcoming Mapex will be held from Oct 19 to 21 at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre. The theme “Home and abroad” is the same as that of Mapex held in March. It will have a total of 227 booths. To date, about 145 booths (65%) have signed up.
“We still have another two to three months left and hopefully the balance will be taken up,” Ng said, adding that the organiser is expecting a crowd of 50,000 throughout the three-day event.
“To date, more than 50 developers have registered for the booths in Halls 1, 2 and 3. These include S P Setia Bhd, Sime Darby Property Bhd, PKNS, IJM Properties Sdn Bhd, Berjaya Land Bhd, I&P Group Sdn Bhd, Lebar Daun Sdn Bhd and Sunway Integrated Properties Sdn Bhd,” he said.
He added that the exhibition will focus strongly on residential property and will emphasise less on commercial and retail developments. “We started our exhibition as a home ownership event so there is an emphasis on residential property but there is nothing to prevent any commercial or retail developers from showcasing their products to the public,” he said.
The exhibition is the second Klang Valley Mapex for 2012 organised by Rehda. On talk that cement prices may go up from Aug 1, Ng said there is no reason for a price hike.
“There is no shortage of cement. There is no electricity price hike, no coal prices going up and in fact the price of petrol is going down. So a price hike would be illogical,” he said. A price hike in building materials will affect construction costs, he added.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 27, 2012.