Devotion To The Industry

Shaping the community with passion and commitment

Seri Austin was recently crowned the winner of Distinctive Lifestyle Township Development category at the Property Insight Prestigious Developer Awards 2016. The man behind this success is the CEO of UMLand Seri Austin developed by Dynasty View Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of UMLand Bhd), Wong Kuen Kong. He is a man of few words but his humble nature does not camouflage the leader that he is – stern, focused and visionary.

“I have gathered a very good experience working in an audit firm so I applied the knowledge I’ve learnt such as managing profits and cash flows when I ventured into the property industry. I like what I’m doing as a developer now. It’s an amazing career path as I am building shelters for people to stay.”With a strong finance background, Wong was attached to an Australian audit firm before he ventured into the property industry. Why property?

BEING A DEVELOPER

Twenty years ago, Wong joined the finance department at Seri Alam Properties Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of UMLand. Little did he realise that he will be chosen to lead Dynasty View Sdn Bhd, to develop Seri Austin Township.

“UMLand bought a piece of land which has now transformed into the popular Seri Austin. In 2015, my boss asked me to take on the challenge to lead and launch the project. It was delighting to know that he trusted me and gave me a chance to prove myself. Of course I took up the challenge. It was not easy because the 500-acre land is actually not very small. Plus, our land is located among the big boys (developers)!”

“There were a lot of headaches during the early days and worst thing is that there were no accessibilities to the project. I had to talk to the neighbouring townships and authorities to find a solution for this issue together.”

“After that, I made some amendments to the master plan before launching it. To date, we have been receiving good feedbacks and I can say that the responses have been very positive. We’re now celebrating our 11th year of Seri Austin and have completed about 80% of our plan,” says Wong.

SERI AUSTIN TOWNSHIP

UMLand Group is now looking for new land banks to replicate the same successful model for newer townships.

“Seri Austin has not only become a township model for UMLand, but also for developments in Iskandar Malaysia. It was recognised by IRDA as the first Smart, Healthy City and Community Township in 2014. We have everything in place. We have the first effective microorganism (EM), which is part of the ecosystem plan in our township. We even collaborated with MBJB (Johor Bahru City Council) to launch this ecosystem project.”

“Other than that, we are also the first developer to sign an agreement with Telekom Malaysia to provide UniFi high speed broadband to all residents. With this agreement, we are providing two years of free WiFi to our customers. Not many townships do that. When residents move in, they have a unit that’s Internet-ready. This is something that we wanted to do for the community.”

“In prioritising health, we are the first townhsip in Johor to have build bicycle lanes to encourage residents to stay healthy. Our two parks are smoke-free and if anyone’s caught smoking, they’d be fined! In other words, we’re building this township based on the ideal health and stress-free lifestyle concept.”

“Seri Austin is designed with hills and a lake. We are the only township within the vicinity that offers such features. I built the lake first before launching the project – so people would have a good landscape to enjoy while driving around. If you ask me personally, I don’t like staying in a commercial area that is packed with shops, people and even cars. Let commercial development stay commercialised. I want to stay in a residential unit with ample greenery surrounding it,” says Wong.

“The first phase of Seri Austin comprised terraces, with an old layout. For the next few developments, I changed them to cluster units, semi-detached houses, bungalows and apartments. We are also planning shopping mall that complements the residential development. Now, Seri Austin has everything in one place; from low-end to high-end amenities.”

“We have also embedded Feng Shui elements into the project. The units are designed with basic Feng Shui elements because some buyers today are aware of such elements and definitely compare one project with another based on this. This is mainly because if they choose a project with good Feng Shui elements, they need not do anymore renovations to the unit.”

“Home buyers will feel good having these elements in place. As a developer, I always think from the buyers’ side. I always tell my architects, do not build a house for the sake of building it but always have the buyers in mind. If the wives don’t like the houses for some reason, the husbands will not buy it. Knowing and understanding buyers’ needs are important,” says Wong.

MUST HAVE VALUES

The most important values that Wong hold close to his heart are passion and commitment.

“Everyone should have passion for any kind of job they do. If you have no passion, you can’t get things done. Treat your job as your passion and then commitment will follow suit. Then, all things will come to you naturally. Creativity, innovation, teamwork and integrity will instinctively be there. If you have all these, then you’re already there.”

“A good team demonstrates excellent teamwork. I need to make sure the team members think alike and communicate with each other. We have a weekly meeting with the Heads of Department (HODs). The HODs will then have a meeting with their respective teams. That way, you can keep communication intact. There is no space for finger-pointing and politicking in my team. If something goes wrong, we solve it together. I really need to thank my team for their cooperation and support and also my boss for trusting me with the township project.

“As a leader, it is crucial for me to be hands-on all the time. I even go to the site regularly and attend training programmes. Even for our events, I usually go for rehearsals to make sure everything is on track. When you are hands-on, you will face lesser problems. You must enjoy what you are doing and not just leave the work and worry to your employees alone.”

Wong is very particular about the quality of his projects that he stays in Seri Austin to observe things for himself.

“This is important to me because if I don’t experience the property for myself, I would not be able to detect any defects and deliver the best to my customers.”

Quality is easy to spot and Seri Austin exudes not just quality but also care and sustainability and that’s the reason behind their CSR award at The Iskandar Malaysia Social Hero Awards 2014.

“It was the first year when they introduced this award and we are glad we won the category. Following that, I was honoured to receive the CSR CEO of The Year at the Asia Pacific CSR Awards 2015. That came as a pleasant surprise because the organisers did not give me a head ups on the win.”

“We do a lot of community charity for our township. I have personally contributed to other welfare establishments like the Chinese associations, Iskandar Regional Development Authority’s (IRDA), women’s associations, and a host of other charity events. I am happy to lend support to community programmes and that’s how a lot of associations know me, my project and UMLand.”

“It is a good networking opportunity for me. I also give career talks to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students during their talent development programmes and advise them on steps to take after graduation.”

JOHOR’S PROPERTY MARKET

Wong says the property market is indeed facing a slow down.

“I think it’s normal for a market to experience ups and downs and this is not limited to the property market. It is a global issue. The banks are also tightening their guidelines and that affects the property market because buyers cannot get their loans approved. We do speak to banks from time to time to see how we can at least help first time home buyers get their loans to buy their dream homes,” says Wong adding that things are more challenging for fresh graduates as they do not have a borrowing power.

“However, I personally feel that now is actually a good time to buy. Since the market has slowed down, a lot of developers are giving away packages and incentives to buyers. If the market picks up again, it will be too late. Take your time to shop now. Buy, then keep it for five years as an investment.”

“I think the Johor people are adapting fast to the changes in their area. A lot of developers are coming in, including the Chinese developers. This helps build a good reputation for Iskandar Malaysia. We are not worried about competitions because ours is a different ballgame altogether. With all these developments, the population will increase and there will be a lot of employment opportunities opening up.”

“My company is doing fine maybe because we are developing residential and landed projects. Our landed units are moving forward and our projects are selling above average. This is probably because buyers like the designs and quality of our products as well as the green environment of our townhsip.

He adds that high-rise projects have to be cautious as local demand may not be that great. He reminds buyers to choose the best locations before purchasing a property so that they do not have to worry about the status or values associated to it.