Davis Wong. Man With The Midas Touch

Coming to Kuala Lumpur with nothing, completing a business degree and then making a 180˚ switch towards the arts, he now owns more property than anyone else his age, and looks good doing it

The fact that our Personality of the Month bought his first house at the age of 18, and intends to retire by 35 already shows how determined and relentless he is. Starting at such a young age, Davis Wong, the multifaceted hair stylist cum property investor is already making headlines for the work he does. From modelling, to hosting shows, not to mention his three hair salons all aptly named The Scissors Palace, there is no doubt in my mind that Davis will reach his goal of retiring at 35.

Davis’s story began 4 years ago when he first started learning about hairdressing from scratch. With a fiery passion for hair styling, he was determined to achieve greatness even though he already had a degree in business and a property in hand. Slowly he acclaimed recognition for his ‘work’ on famous actors and actresses namely Yasmin Hani, Sazzy Falak and Maria Faridah to name a few. From then on his hair styling career was set.

“I graduated with an international business degree, mainly because I come from a family whose roots are entrenched in business. My dad is a developer. But I realized I am still very passionate about doing hair. He wanted me to go into business, and out of all the businesses he did at the time, I was only interested in property.” So Davis left for the art industry and has not looked back since. He has no regrets. Davis put himself through his business degree by working four jobs as a student and went on to pursue his dream by opening The Scissors Palace 2 years ago with his business partner. Soon, The Scissors Palace will be transformed into a boutique salon where fashion meets style.

The great thing about The Scissors Palace is that it is more of a family than it is a business. Everyone is treated the same and you feel it the minute you walk in. But that is not all. Davis also believes in giving back to the community. On weekends, Davis and his team help the less fortunate by giving them free haircuts. Something he vowed to do from experience involving an unforgettable incident.

“When I used to work in the previous salon, a customer came in and he had cancer, so half of his face was slightly deformed, he went around the city but he couldn’t find anywhere to have his hair cut because a lot of people discriminated him.” The customer then walked up to the counter, signed an empty cheque and replied “I don’t know what you are worth but thanks for giving me a haircut. I have no family or friends, I am about to die and doctors say I only have a month or two to live”. Heartbroken and disappointed with society, Davis vowed to help the less fortunate, “So when I started the salon, I made sure everyone in my team cut hair for the less fortunate.”

Even with all this esteemed success, and time to spare for the less fortunate, his inclination towards the property investment market never ceased. Close to 8 years ago, Davis purchased a property in the middle of nowhere, in Sungai Plan, Bintulu. At the time, 18 year old Davis took a loan from the bank for RM14,000 with his father as a guarantor and basically bought a shack for RM14,000 and turned it into a long house divided into 7 units. Little did he know that Sungai Plan would be a satellite town, with Honda and Shell setting up base there, his ‘shack’ is now worth close to RM400,000. It has now been extended to 14 units, with 10 more units coming up.

Taking a loan at 18 years old sounds  difficult, but due to the time, and the small amount, Davis was able to buy, and still continues making money from his first property. “My strategy is always buying low-cost housing.  The rich won’t buy expensive houses they will build their own expensive houses.”

The idea and strategy is to focus on the middle class income earners who will rent, or buy more affordable housing. “Low-cost is already cutting down half of your risk” he says. He chooses to focus on affordable housing due to the current economic climate. “Properties above half a million are less interesting for me because it is too much for a lot of people, especially at a general income of RM4,000.” Davis puts months of effort into researching his areas of interest, which includes meeting the people whom live in that vicinity. “Before you purchase the house always ask the neighbours first, how long have they lived there? How is the neighbourhood? It does not matter if you are going to rent or live in that area, knowing the neighbourhood is very important.”

Davis frequently flies back to Sarawak to check up on his properties. He rents them out around Curtin University in Miri and there are always tenants. But it is not always sunshine and rainbows. “Once, I saw footprints on the ceiling of one of my properties in Senadin and I don’t know how that happened. As a house owner, I am always terrified with whom I rent my properties out to.”

Between following other investors and property investment speculators, Davis opts for the more trusted source, mainly, himself. “I consider myself more of a business man and I manage my business by always knowing what is going on, and this includes my properties.” As the son of a businessman whom also engages in property investment, Davis was sent for property management training. “You will know how to judge the analysis yourself towards property. Buy an area that already has a McDonald’s or a Starbucks, because they did their analysis way before you came in.”

The future looks bright for this entrepreneur extraordinaire. But what does the market sentiment look like to him? Almost as promising as the services in his salon. “I think at the moment after GST, a lot of people are letting go of their properties because they are trying to lower the risk by reducing the amount of properties they have. But, if you ask me about the present market, yes it is currently a good market to invest in.”