SP Setia Bhd added another feather to its cap by bagging the Best Developer title in the South East Asia Property Awards (Malaysia) 2015. It also grabbed five other awards – Best Green Development, Best Luxury Condo Development (Central Malaysia), Best Luxury Housing Development (East Malaysia), Best Mid-range Housing Development (South Malaysia), and Best Residential Architectural Design – and two Highly Commended certificates in the development and design sections.
Among the other major winners include Mammoth Empire, whose WOLO Bukit Bintang project won the judges’ approval in the Best Commercial Development, Best Commercial Architectural Design and Best Hotel Interior Design categories; and Front Concept Sdn Bhd, which went home with three awards for its Senibong Cove residential development, winner of Best Landscape Architectural Design, Best Housing Development (South Malaysia), and Best Housing Development (Malaysia).
Sime Darby Property Bhd was presented with a Special Recognition for its initiatives in corporate social responsibility (CSR), covering “four pillars” namely community, education, sports, and the environment. The company‘s active CSR programmes include Quality and Affordable Housing; Green Heart, Young Sustainability Ambassadors; and T.R.E.E. (Together in Restoring The Earth’s Environment) Planting.
OSK Property Holdings Bhd received five Highly Commended certificates, including one for Mirage by the Lake luxury condominium development in Central Malaysia, and four in the design categories. UM Land took home three Highly Commended certificates, including one for its Dynasty View Sdn Bhd unit in the Best Green Development category.
With all the top winners in the Malaysian leg revealed, the focus is now on the Awards’ fifth regional grand finals – The South East Asia Property Awards 2015 – to be held at The Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore on Wednesday, 21 October, and preceded by the inaugural Property Report Congress, a high-level forum on the same day and venue featuring the who’s who in Southeast Asian real estate, architecture and design.
The Malaysian winners will compete with the winners from the Myanmar Property Awards (held in Yangon on 24 March), Vietnam Property Awards (Ho Chi Minh City, 25 June), Indonesia Property Awards (Jakarta, 4 June), Philippines Property Awards (Manila, 9 July), Thailand Property Awards (Bangkok, 9 September) and winners from Singapore.
Ensign Media, awards organiser and publisher of Asia’s industry-leading Property Report magazine, is also the organiser of The China Property Awards, to be held in Hong Kong on 25 November.
The Awards are supervised by BDO, the fifth largest accountancy network in the world.
“Malaysia is still one of the most dynamic markets in the region despite some temporary setbacks due to the cooling measures, and the best of the best in Malaysia certainly deserve to be showcased on a regional level,” said Terry Blackburn, CEO of Ensign Media.
The event in Kuala Lumpur was the first property awards programme in Malaysia since the goods and services tax (GST) was introduced in April. The rigorous nomination and judging period spanned six months.
Members of the central judges panel in Malaysia were: Khalil Adis Consultancy Pte Ltd founder Khalil Adis; Pocket Projects founder and managing director Karen Tan; Axis REIT Managers Bhd chief executive officer and executive director Dato’ George Stewart LaBrooy; Zerin Properties chief executive officer Previndran Singhe; Hall Chadwick Asia chairman Kumar Tharmalingam; Vignan Hunt; and JLL Property Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd country head and managing director YY Lau. The panel of judges were chaired by David Aboud, director of Investments and Asset Management, Asian Real Estate, Guidance Investments.
One special award was not determined by the independent panel of judges but instead chosen by the editors of Property Report, is Malaysia’s Real Estate Personality of the Year, presented to Dato’ Colin Tan June Teng (pic), group managing director of the Hatten Group, one of the largest privately owned real estate development, property investment and retail management corporations in the country. Tan’s pioneering mixed-use current developments include Hatten City and the collaborative Capital City, two of the year’s Highly Commended projects.
“It is certainly an honour to win this award. I am both proud and humbled to receive this title; it is a major milestone in my career,” said Tan, who envisions his group to become one of the country’s top 10 premier developers by 2020. “More importantly, it means that I am on the right track towards making an impact to the global industry.”