Generating trust and confidence in a brand is a painstaking process that is easier said than done. LBS Bina Group Berhad (LBS) refers to this process as a labour of love, drawing from its experience of building homes, lifestyle spaces and contributing to the growth of communities for over two decades. The township developer was recently honoured with two awards for its exemplary practices at The BrandLaureate Prominent Business BestBrands Award 2018. The awards comprised of The BrandLaureate Top Ten Best Choice Prominent Brand of the Year Award for the LBS brand and the The BrandLaureate Most Eminent - Prominent Business Brand Leadership Award in recognition of LBS Group Managing Director, Tan Sri Lim Hock San's leadership in developing future entrepreneurs. "We are humbled and honoured by these awards. It shows the trust the industry, stakeholders and homebuyers have for the LBS brand. For a brand to excel and remain sustainable, it is not enough to simply exist and deliver good quality products or services. This is expected of any brand. What sets a brand apart and raises confidence among stakeholders is its proactive involvement in the community," said LBS Group Managing Director, Tan Sri Lim Hock San. LBS has a presence in the local property development industry that spans over two decades. Over the past two years, the Group faced a challenging market environment. The Malaysian property sector's transactions were reported to have fallen 2.7 percent to 311,824 in 2017, and total value of transactions declined 3.8 percent to RM139.84 billion. Defying market trends, LBS managed to record the highest sales achievement in the Group's history with RM1.43 billion in 2017, surging 15 percent compared to 2016. The positive growth was attributed to the Group's strategy of focusing on the affordable and medium housing market segment. Todate, LBS Bina has delivered over 34,000 affordable homes which include homes developed under the Rumah SelangorKu and Civil Servant Housing Scheme (PPAM) programmes. Looking at innovative ways to increase the supply of affordable homes, LBS is an active promoter of the Industrialised Building System (IBS) which has proven to result in improved quality control as processes are streamlined and managed in the factory assembly line setting, reduced manual labour required at construction sites, and neater and cleaner construction sites with minimal congestion, and most importantly, construction time is reduced by two to three months, leading to buildings being completed quicker and allowing an earlier return of investment. In the first quarter of 2018, the National Property Information Centre reported unsold completed residential units totalled 34,532 (valued at RM22.26bil). Unperturbed, LBS boldly announced a sales target of RM1.8 billion by the end of 2018 earlier in the year. The Group has achieved RM1.1 billion in sales from January to August 2018 alone. Leveraging on the demand of the market for more affordable and medium range landed developments, LBS continues to enjoy positive take up rates for its newly launched developments set in up-and-coming townships such as LBS Alam Perdana and BSP. LBS' strong performance has helped the Group gain a prominent voice in the property development industry and business fraternity. With this voice, Tan Sri Lim Hock San took his passion of building communities to the next level through his involvement in associations. These included leading the Federation of Malaysia Lim Associations (FMLA), and the Malaysia-Guangdong Chamber of Investment Promotion (MGCIP) in the promotion of bilateral cultural and trade ties. "In the face of a dynamic market landscape, brands need to embrace change quickly and understand consumers' needs. For example, we take into consideration how and where new homebuyers today look for information when purchasing a new home. This is why we create engaging online platforms for consumers to access our developments complete with vibrant images and a virtual reality feature. We understand young and first time homebuyers today prioritise the entire look and feel of a home and its surrounding environment," said Tan Sri Lim. In addition to the BestBrands in International Property Development Award, Tan Sri Lim was also awarded the Most Prominent Entrepreneur Award at the ceremony held at The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur. The award was conferred in recognition of Tan Sri Lim's vision, enterprising spirit, leadership and role as a source of inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs. The BrandLaureate Prominent Business BestBrands Awards is an award under the Asia Pacific Brands Foundation which recognises innovative brands that have grown to become industry captains and trend setters.