Despite the challenges of a muted Singapore property market, real estate firm PropNex Realty yesterday (Wednesday) announced record gross commissions collected of more than S$ 200 million during 2015.
Transaction volumes also crossed a major milestone – the 40,000 mark. What the firm described as being exceptional results reflected the positive operating environment and the ongoing performance improvements which was implemented at the start of 2015. The company added that it is expected to do well during 2016.
Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer, Ismail Gafoor, (pictured) said: “Our people delivered PropNex’s biggest year ever, thanks to our most innovative technology products and relentless pursuit of skills enhancement. Revenue growth of the company accelerated to produce record results, and our transaction volumes were up 22 percent from 2014 – despite the challenging market conditions.
“The company is committed to continuously earn the trust of our customers, employees and associates. I’m proud of what we accomplished together, running a reliable real estate agency and making the right moves to deliver greater value.”
In a statement PropNex said that, evidently, the Singapore government’s plan to lower demand is working; and property prices are now on a downtrend. In addition, there is also a huge amount of supply 60,000 units in the pipeline and a record 26,500 vacant units that are entering the market and to make matters worse,
Interest rates are set to increase further. Against such a backdrop, we think a pre-emptive calibration of the measures rather than post-corrective actions would be a better way to go in achieving a stable and sustainable property market; this is especially so as we have a home ownership rate of 90 percent in Singapore.
As such, we are of the view that a large correction in property prices is not a desirable outcome for most people.
In coming up with these recommendations, we have been mindful of the macroeconomic concerns and the overall objectives of the government’s aim to achieve a stable and sustainable property market. We also took reference from the recently published ‘Financial Stability Review’ (November 2015), by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
In our recommendations we proposed for some to be retained with no changes, and some calibrations to certain measures to better address concerns which we have heard from the ground. The full proposal was submitted to the relevant Ministries this week.
With the right calibrations; whilst retaining the key fundamentals of the objectives of the cooling measures, we believe that there will not be a sudden rebound in both transactions and prices.
PropNex will also be continuing the Consumer Empowerment Seminar (CES), with the first to be held on April 9, 2016, at HDB Hub auditorium. Through this, it hopes to empower Singapore consumers to make sound property investment decisions. The CES attracted more than 30,000 attendees in the last three years – who benefited with a deeper understanding of real estate in Singapore.
“CESs are a key part of how we connect with consumers in order to help them make informed decisions on real estate investments. We seek to present the latest insights from our research with salespersons, landlords, buyers and tenants, and discuss wider economic and political housing issues that can further reinforce their knowledge.
“As Singapore’s leading real estate agency, it is up to us to pass on our extensive research knowledge and property know-hows to empower consumers so that they can realise their property aspirations,” concluded Ismail.
