Minister calls for timely, accurate property data

PUTRAJAYA: Deputy Finance Minister II Datuk Lee Chee Leong has called on property data providers to supply data in a timely and accurate manner, in order for industry stakeholders to make informed development decisions.

This follows the residential overhang and commercial space vacancy as reported by the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) in its Property Market Report for First Half of 2017.

Lee, who spoke to reporters at a briefing on the report yesterday, said that such issues must be addressed by all parties involved, particularly local authorities and property developers, whom he urged to exercise due diligence when making development decisions in order to avoid an oversupply situation.

“Therefore, timely and accurate data are very important. I strongly urge all data providers to continue supplying data as required by the Act. At the same time, JPPH should strengthen its role as the main property data source in the country,” Lee.

However, JPPH’s Property Market Report, which is published annually, is only released four months after the conclusion of the year, which means that property data for the entire 2017 will only be available in April 2018.

Commenting on the timeliness of the data, JPPH (operation) deputy directorgeneral Dr Zailan Mohd Isa said JPPH and National Property Information Centre (Napic) are merely data collectors.

“The data providers are the developers, the government side, the property agents, the hostelers (for hotels) and property managers (for retail). Do they give the data as what we request? That is the pertinent question,” she said.

She said these data providers must submit their data in a timely manner in order for JPPH to be timely in the release of the data but the situation in Malaysia is different from other countries such as Korea, where industry stakeholders are keen to share data.

“Sad to say, we have to really educate our data providers. We are doing that. We have the property information unit at all the branch offices who give hands on training so that they (data providers) know how to use our system and to submit data online. This is ongoing,” she added.

Asked whether JPPH will take more stringent measures to improve timeliness, which has been an issue since JPPH started publishing the report in 2000, directorgeneral of Valuation and Property Services Nordin Daharom said it will not resort to “cracking the whip”.

“Property data is not similar to other types like share transactions because you can have that share transferred immediately. In property data, you have to go through the process of so many departments. The fastest to go to JPPH is almost one or two months before the transaction is concluded. Actually it is the way forward to have that data but it takes time to educate the public,” he said.

“So to crack the whip, under the Act we have a sentence of RM10,000 or three months imprisonment but we in JPPH are not going to crack the ‘rotan’. We will still go with the soft approach,” he added.

The Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981 was amended in 1999, enabling JPPH to set up and manage a property information centre under the supervision and responsibility of the director-general of valuation.

Pursuant to the amendments, the Valuation and Property Services Rules were amended and gazetted in September 1999. Napic began its operations nationwide on Oct 1, 1999.