MPI has had many Fund Managers come to our office seeking information on investment opportunities and data on property transactions that are current. It is not very encouraging to discover that investment funds from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have so little information on real estate in Malaysia.
One particular fund manager, an American Japanese fund which had invested in Singapore and had an Asian base in Singapore knew nothing of the investment opportunities in Malaysia other than what was garnered from Government pronouncements on the Iskandar region and Penang, and a little bit on the Economic Transformation Programme and the Klang Valley.
Local information is everywhere and almost every home owner in Malaysia is an expert on some aspects of Malaysian real estate. We have valuation firms providing data and analysis but they do not seem to have a market outside the country since what is published is usually a few paragraphs in the dailies or weeklies.
Our main issue is that there is a paucity of investment in large chunk real estate by large international funds. Any time we get some we do make a noise but it is only heard locally so the foreign media have no knowledge. In countries like Hong Kong or Singapore every agency disseminates information about real estate to the media and to the embassies all over the world about the latest trends in the property market. Thailand uses the Tourism Ministry to also publish trends and transactions and recent high profile investments into the country, especially in the motor industry.
We have lots of oil and gas and investment corridor information. Investment in the IT industry in Penang is growing, yet this information remains within the state or the company. It is not picked up by any of the Ministries to showcase investments done in the country. Having seen the seamless delivery of investment information in a positive way by other countries, there must be an opportunity for Malaysia to do the same. Information not only has to be topical but also in-depth and disseminated through a dedicated delivery system.
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