Security, a crucial aspect in absentee home ownership

PETALING JAYA (April 8): One of the problems being a foreign property investor is security and safety concerns for the property that they have invested in, noted Singapore Association of Property and Facility Managers president Dr Lim Lan Yuan. This is especially so if the investor is not based in the country.

“Safety and security is one of the specific considerations among foreign home investors due to absentee home ownership as the property owner is not there to look after the property himself or herself.

“There were instances where property owners find their properties either modified without their consent or broken into. So it is crucial to have a property management team to guarantee the safety of the property on behalf of the property owner,” he said during his session entitled “In the eyes of a foreign investor” at the TheEdgeProperty.com Symposium on Property Management 2017 today.

Lim said among the issues Singaporean investors weigh heavily before they invest would be the property management, especially in terms of security, tenure, property type, and size.

 “In terms of tenure, in Singapore, it is very difficult to get freehold property as the government owns most of the land there. So when we get a freehold property we will love it.

“Another thing we pay a lot of attention to is the property size. Generally, Malaysian properties have bigger built-ups and they are still considered relatively cheap.

“And this translates to higher growth potential for property investors because there is still room [for capital appreciation] to grow. In Singapore, the property price is very high so, there will not be much growth there,” he notes.

Themed “Is your investment a time bomb?”, the symposium is presented by TheEdgeProperty.com, with partners Nippon Paint Malaysia and Panasonic Malaysia. It is supported by The Edge Malaysia while the supporting sponsor is Gamuda Land.

The full report on TheEdgeProperty.com Symposium on Property Management 2017 will be published in the April 14 issue of TheEdgeProperty.com pullout which is available free for download at www.theedgeproperty.com.