MIEA helps Real Estate Practitioners in supporting the government to comply with the Anti-Terrorism and Money Laundry Act [AMLA] and to help improve sales of commercial properties.

The Malaysia Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) signed two Memorandum of Understanding between Halo Check & CRE Tech Sdn Bhd on the 23rd of September 2022 at the MIEA National Training Centre in Petaling Jaya.

The first half of the year saw the residential property sector record 116,178 transactions worth RM45.62 billion, an increase of 26.3% in volume and 32.2% in value year-on-year. The commercial property segment recorded 15,169 transactions worth RM14.02 billion, up by 45.4% in volume and 28.3% in value compared to the first half of last year.

“There is an upbeat feeling that the property market will continue to stabilize and improve further in the second half of the year and if Budget 2023 supports property ownership as it will be a good year for property investment,” said Chan Ai Cheng President of MIEA.

“In tandem with the strong sentiments, the demand for properties both in sales and rental will grow. MIEA sees an equal rise in demand for good service & efficiency from agents who transact approximately 60% of the total transactions throughout Malaysia”.

“It is important that the agents' service delivery needs to be upgraded and enhanced regularly for the growth of the profession which directly benefits the rakyat. Being a relatively young profession, we need the consistency and the commitment to be relevant and progressive by promoting professionalism and commitment to service,” added Ms Chan.

In line with this objective, MIEA is playing its part in supporting the government and specifically Bank Negara in helping Real Estate Practitioners comply with the Anti-Terrorism and Money Laundering Act [AMLA]. Real estate is regarded as a professional practice and identified as a reporting institution for Bank Negara Malaysia in compliance with the AMLA act. The Data and Compliance Report [DCR] is an annual reporting requirement beginning in 2020 and is used to gauge reporting institutions’ compliance to the AMLA and AML/CFT and TFS for DNFBPs and NBFIs Policy Document (Policy Document) and monitoring of money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

Being identified as a reporting institution, it is mandatory for Agents to conduct Customer Due Diligence (CDD) which requires the collection of identification documents; and to report, if any, any suspicious buyers or tenants in possible money laundering or channelling funds. This is a tough act to follow as CDD is required for all parties in all transactions within the firm. At MIEA we constantly strive to form strategic partnerships to assist our members to comply with regulatory requirements. MIEA has found a platform to make it easier for practitioners to do the necessary reporting through a web application called ‘HALOCHECK’. 

This web application will allow agents who subscribe to conduct an instant e-KYC on landlords, tenants, sellers, and buyers to ensure compliance.

Furthermore, the performance of the purpose-built office decreased to 77.7% lower than H1 2021(78.5%). The purpose-built office consists of 1,565 private-owned buildings (18,155,972 s.m.) and 1,010 public-owned buildings (6,018,590 s.m). With the initiative taken by MIEA today by collaborating with CRE Tech Sdn Bhd, who will officially launch today ‘BRIQ BLOQ’ market, the first commercial real estate landlord listing platform. This will enable MIEA members to access detailed commercial listing information and vacancies directly from the landlords. 

“The collaboration will bring MIEA practitioners a new channel to consume information and digital content of the commercial market and spaces. We are also happy to state that we have an exclusive arrangement for individual members where only MIEA members can subscribe to the BRIQ BLOQ platform,” said Mr Ming Yaw, the CEO & Founder of Briq Bloq. 

On another note, MIEA has submitted its proposal for Budget 2023 to stimulate the real estate sector.

For more information about MIEA, visit https://www.miea.com.my/.