A value - centric real estate czar

It wouldn’t be amiss to call him the real estate czar of Singapore, with about 50% share of the residential real estate pie under his umbrella. Ismail Gafoor, Executive Chairman and CEO, PropNex Realty Pte. Ltd., a real estate company, Singapore, has his business empire spanning across Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, besides Singapore, with over 10,000 agents working with him in these countries. However, the difference comes with his people and customer-centric values he practices, and has successfully instilled, across his business….

"If you really want to come into real estate consultancy then you should have the passion in terms of knowledge and to genuinely address the requirement of clients"

Corporate Citizen: You began by floating your real estate company, 'Nooris Consultants Pvt Ltd' in 1996, along with your wife. What propelled you to get into the real estate business? Was it your childhood ambition?

Ismail Gafoor: To be honest, it was not my childhood dream. All I knew was that my dad was an immigrant from South India when he came to Singapore for work and we lived in a very small house. The Singapore Government gave us a rented place that comprised one room for my mom and dad and another room for all five of us siblings. So for me, it was never a dream to be a successful real estate agent, but I think when I grew up, I realised that we weren’t as comfortable as some other people in terms of our houses.

When I was 18 years old, I had to serve the Army, as is mandatory for every citizen of Singapore. While I was travelling in a bus with my friend, he told me that his uncle who had bought a property sold it and made a profit of a quarter-million Singapore dollars. As an 18-year-old boy, it really impacted me. My dad who was a newspaper vendor woke up early at 4 am to deliver newspapers and all that he earned was a mere four cents for every newspaper sold which were such a contrast to the huge amount that my friend’s uncle earned, just by selling off one property. That’s when I decided that I would certainly like to sell properties, for I calculated that if I sold four of them, I would become a millionaire! In contrast, it was difficult to count how many thousands of millions of papers we would have to sell to get that quarter million.

From then on, a passion was ignited within me to learn about the trade. During my free time, I would go and see properties, attend weekend property seminars, show apartments to potential buyers on behalf of real estate agents, learn about property investments and so on. Thereafter, I joined the Army at 18 years of age. I stayed in the army for 13 years, serving as a combat officer. However, my passion and my desire to become a real estate entrepreneur did not disappear.

When I got married, my wife and I developed the hobby of going to all the property launches and understanding the market. We started our own little journey buying our first house and then selling it. Then we bought two properties out of the earned money we stayed in one of them and rented out the other one. I was still serving in the Army at that time.

Steadily, we gained a lot of knowledge on real estate and property investment and our focus shifted from mere passion to confidence into venturing into this business. At the age of 32 years, that is, on 1st July 1995, I left the armed forces. My wife Nooraini, who was also a military officer, too resigned. Then both of us started the real estate company by the name Nooris Consultants. The name of the company was the combination of letters in both our names and we established the company in January 1996, after six months of research.

"I believe that all rewards and recognitions are the by-products of anyone working passionately with the belief of adding greater value "

CC: At what point of time did it expand to what is now called PropNex Realty, Pte. Ltd., and what strategies did you adopt to make your company grow so impressively?

Both of us possess very strong attributes of leadership, discipline and organisational skills because of the army regimen and because both of us were officers. We are also endowed with a fair degree of discipline from our parents. Thus, within three years, our company became one of the leading Malay Muslim real estate companies in Singapore, as we were only focusing on this niche segment comprising 15% of the population. At that time, we had about 250 agents.

Soon, it dawned on us that the only way to grow business was to address the mainstream market, comprising the Chinese Mandarin population and there was no point in confining ourselves to being the largest Malay Muslim real estate company. So we had to break the branding of Nooris to make it a more multiracial, multi-cultural company that embraced the mainstream of all religion and business segments. Thus, in 2000, Nooris joined with Prulink, a company of a good friend of mine, which partnered with us. This company had 250 Chinese agents who addressed the mainstream market and we had 250 Malay Muslim agents who addressed the niche market. We merged and started PropNex with 500 agents from all races and religions, to become a multi-racial, mainstream company.

We focused on the training of our employees to make them IT savvy, with knowledge of the economy. Soon we grew from 500 to 5000 and today we have 8400 agents in Singapore. We have also spread our wings to neighbouring countries. We have 1100 agents in Indonesia, 600 agents in Malaysia and close to 200 agents in Vietnam. Altogether we have more than 10,000 agents making it a very strong team. The success of our enterprise is not about me alone; with a bit of my experience, the guidance of the almighty and a lot of good people, we are building the company together.

CC: Despite your modesty, this actually means that your leadership skills are phenomenal. How do you hold people together, how do you motivate so many of them?

It is a very simple philosophy. In fact, I have been quoted in several magazines that first, you need to add value to the people who work for you. “The day the company fails to add value to its people, is the day, the people should leave for elsewhere for the sake of their loved ones.” This has been the mantra for me, so whether I had a few 100 employees or nearly 10,000 of them today, the mantra remains the same. You should add value to those who are working for you. If I am not adding value, because I am the largest employer, then I am not doing the right thing. With such a philosophy, we wake up every day, come to the office with a sense of excitement to solve any challenge, and do not consider the challenge as a problem.

I also passionately believe that all rewards and recognitions are the by-products of anyone working passionately with the belief of adding greater value to mankind and society. As long as we do that, the people under you realise that and that’s why I am so glad they have stayed with me for 15, 17, and some of them for 25 years. My Chief Operating Officer (COO) joined me as an intern at the young age of 21. Today, she is 38 years old, a COO of a listed company and recently delivered a baby. My KEO has been with me for 15 years. My IT Director has been with me for 15 years, so generally people stay with me because I believe in adding value and growing together. Thus, all the people are aligned together with our core values to move in the right direction.

CC: Do you have employees across nationalities in Singapore?

Yes. In fact, my senior IT manager is from India, handling the entire IT department which also has a few IT engineers and specialists from India. My Financial Controller and my COO are from Malaysia. I have a large staff from the Philippines, Myanmar and different parts of the world.

CC: It is such a cross-culture. People from which country do you think are the most dynamic and efficient?

I don’t think dynamic people are a monopoly of any specific country. I will never qualify any country that way, but each country has its own unique strength. For example, people who come from the Philippines are very strong in hospitality areas like customer service, client relationship, and are very fluent in the English language. A lot of IT talent comes from India. They are brainy and strong in technology. Malaysia being an immediate neighbour of Singapore, the culture is very much similar to Singapore.

"You should add value to those who are working for you. If I am not adding value, because I am the largest employer, then I am not doing the right thing"

(L - R) Natasha Gafoor (younger daughter), Noorisha Gafoor (elder daughter), Ismail Gafoor, Nooraini Noordin (wife),
and Nooris Gafoor (son)

CC: You are prominently placed in a residential market. What makes you so prominent?

We are a very strong and dominant player in the residential market, although, we do a lot of commercial and industrial business as well because of our dominance in the residential market. Last year we did more than 65,000 transactions. For the first time, the commissions that we got from those transactions exceeded 500 million Singapore Dollars. Because of the large number of our marketing representatives out there in the market, we got about 40 to 50% of the various segments of the residential market. In segments like public housing, we got about 47%, on newly launched developments about 50%, and re-sale properties amounted to about 45%. As far as the residential market is concerned, our market share is 45-50% of all sales that take place in Singapore.

CC: Is Singapore the biggest hub of residential properties, and has it overtaken Dubai?

I am not sure about the Dubai market, but the residential market is very strong in Singapore. If you look at 2019, many wealthy people from all over the world bought houses. The owner of Dyson of the UK, who is a billionaire, bought a house for 70 million dollars and has settled here. Singapore is home to a lot of foreigners who are ultra-rich net worth people. Many of them make Singapore their second home, simply because Singapore provides a high-level of security and healthcare services. The first negotiation between the USA and North Korea happened in Singapore during the 2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, commonly known as the Singapore Summit. Singapore being small, the government has strong management and I think people really like Singapore for safety, security and because it has a strong dollar value. Singapore also provides good education and the tech regime is relatively attractive, compared to many other countries.

CC: How many millionaires/ultra-rich do you think have settled in Singapore?

I don’t have the exact number, but there is a huge number. One of the former Facebook founders is based in Singapore permanently. Many other people like Dyson’s owner have made Singapore their home.

CC: There were cooling measures introduced by the Singapore government recently. What did it mean for buying a property? Did it have any adverse effects?

Our Singapore Government ensures that property prices that go up are sustainable in the long-term. One of its first measures was to levy 24% stamp duty on any foreigner who invests in property. The government got alerted when property prices moved up and envisioned that it would be non-sustainable in the long run, as it has to take care of the local population. So the government brings in cooling measures when the market goes crazy. Every time a cooling measure is imposed, there is a knee-jerk reaction from the buyer. This leads to a slowdown and developers strategise by offering discounts to attract buyers. And that’s really a value proposition for consumers.

CC: What tips would you give to Indians who are looking to invest in residential properties in Singapore?

Even with the 24% stamp duty, last year, a huge number of foreigners from Mainland China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the USA bought properties in Singapore.

As for Indians, they are the 4th largest investors in Singapore. The number one investor in the residential market is China, followed by Malaysia, Indonesia and then India. The reason why Indians invest in properties in Singapore is that Singapore’s currency is stable and very strong; the interest rate in Singapore has been as low as 2% for the last 15 years, which is an attractive proposition. Many of these investors are looking at capital gains or capital appreciation which is non-taxable after three years. If somebody buys a house at 1 million dollars and sells it later after 10 years, say, at 1.5 million, then the 500,000 is non-taxable. So that’s why a lot of foreign investors like to invest in Singapore.

CC: PropNex has won the prestigious peoplecentric award, so could you elaborate on this policy?

There are three things here in this we put everything behind the customer, from customer experience to knowledge to empowering a customer. We train sales people by giving them exposure to consumer seminars in order that they have the right knowledge. Consumers too attend these seminars in large numbers so they are equipped with the right knowledge to make their decisions. Because of our excellence in service and our brand, which is based on customer satisfaction and engagement, we were awarded the people-centric award.

CC: I saw something about a spouse protection scheme on the website. Please elaborate...

I have more than 8000 employees and I have 200 leaders to look after them. For the last eight years, we have launched the Spouse Protection Scheme, which means, when a leader passes away due to any illness or whatever reason, his family will be taken care of based on the income that he would have earned if he had survived until the age of 60. Unfortunately, in 2017, one of my top leaders passed away at the age of 42 years. So, for the next 18 years, the family will be taken care of. No real estate company in Singapore has this scheme. I think this is another reason why people are loyal to us.

"We train sales people by giving them exposure to consumer seminars in order that they have the right knowledge "

CC: Tell us about your expansion in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

We decided to start with South East Asia. In 2016, we opened up in Indonesia, in March 2018 in Malaysia, and in August 2018 in Vietnam. And as I told you earlier, Indonesia has 1100 sales people, Malaysia has 600 and Vietnam has 200 salespeople. We first launched in Indonesia because it has over 200 million population and they are our immediate southern neighbours. And then Malaysia, which is our immediate northern neighbour; Vietnam, because it is an upcoming booming economy. Other countries on our radar are South East Asia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Cambodia, as we grow strong in South East Asia.

CC: How many hours do you work in a day?

It is not about me; the company is being run by a very strong management team and as I told you, my executive director, is with me for 15 years, my COO for 17 years, KEO for 15 years, IT director for 15 years. I come at 8:30 am and leave at 6 pm. I do my part, and I have a strong employee family which is dedicated and so as a team, we are strong. One of the chief reasons why we are strong is because of our strong company culture of loving and caring. We are all tied together by special energy and bond.

CC: PropNex is also reputed for championing the protection of consumers. What did you do to achieve this goal?

For example, I did something very drastic in 2008 because 12 years ago the industry was not regulated. And at that time, I had about 6000 agents, but I made it mandatory for all my agents that each one of them should buy professional indemnity insurance. It doesn’t cost them much just a couple of hundred dollars. Some of my agents protested against this idea but I explained that by this insurance, we were protecting the consumer against any negligence or any mistake and we want to give people the assurance to the consumer that their interest comes first. Out of my 6000 agents, 2800 agents did not want to buy the insurance by the deadline I had given them. And it became breaking news in Singapore, on the electronic and print media channels when I terminated 2800 agents in one go. For my belief is that those who didn’t believe in our vision of protecting the consumer, have no right to continue they can join some other company, I am fine with it. This decision further enhanced the trust of our consumers.

CC: You are also into philanthropy and building schools in Cambodia. Please tell us about that and other charitable contributions…

In the initial 15 years, we were very focussed on the business. About six to seven years ago, we built our first school in Cambodia and then the following year we built our second school there and handed them over to the ministry of education in Cambodia. Subsequently, we have adopted schools in Singapore that cater to the children of lower-income groups. In the last five years, we have contributed half a million dollars for the development of school students annually and pledged $5 million dollars in a donation by the year 2023. We raised this money through a contribution from my employees. Even my sales personnel contribute 5, 10 or 20 dollars when they make a successful property transaction. I’ve collected 200,000 dollars and the company adds dollar to dollar to the employee contribution and then we give it to the charity that needs it. Our charity is aimed at giving children the right education as they would be our future leaders.

"The military taught me organisational skills. In order to command, you need to organise. It also taught me leadership"

CC: You have authored a book, ‘You Can Fly’. What is it all about?

I have written two books. The other book is ‘Timeless Gift’ They are purely occupational concept books. 'You Can Fly' talks about how everyone is entitled to do well. I think we all have an equal opportunity to achieve what we dream. And therefore indeed, I shared some concepts of life challenges and how people from adversity with the right focus can grow and become successful entrepreneurs. I have shared interesting situations. In the second book, I have broken life into four quadrants of 20 years each. In the first 20, it is all about the importance of right values and education; in the second quadrant, life is more stressful as you get into a career, get married, some get divorced, you become parents. In the second quadrant, we must invest in life’s interests because when we don’t invest when we have the capacity, you cannot grow your wealth. In the third quadrant which is 40 to 60 years, we must create wealth and give joy to our loved ones. And then, in the last quadrant, 60-80, it is about working to keeping ourselves fit and giving back to society, and to our family, let’s say, by taking care of the grandchildren.

CC: How did military training help you shape as a person and a professional?

Military life is all about discipline, and self-discipline. All my executives, including myself, are all disciplined. The military taught me organisational skills. In order to command, you need to organise. It also taught me leadership which is essential to lead a commercial organisation. In military operations, nothing is certain, so we need to have a contingency plan and sometimes we need it in our corporate function too. The other point about the military is that we have a never-saydie attitude. So in my commercial venture, we are never worried about cooling measures, downtime, economy, because to me, I have a simple philosophy. You like it or not, when people want to get married, they need a roof over their head. Whether or not the economy is down or not, people need a house. When they get married and have many children, the house becomes small, then they upgrade the house. If the economy is so bad then we have to downsize the house. So, our business always has value and is evergreen.

CC: What is your advice to young professionals across various corporate sectors and to young professionals who choose real estate as a career?

Some youngsters join real estate agencies because they think they will make huge commissions and make quick money. You can’t last if you have this attitude, for today, technology is far more superior in connecting people and eliminating the middleman. If you really want to come into real estate consultancy then you should have the passion in terms of knowledge and to genuinely address the requirement of clients, so that they invest, and go on to become your repeat client for a long time to come. You should have the necessary skill set to play the role of a consultant. If you do it with patience and passion, you can be successful.

CC: What is your opinion about young professionals?

In Singapore, every young millennial is into property ownership. In fact, Singapore has the highest property ownership rate in the world, because the government incentivises millennials to own a house by giving a special grant. A young Singaporean family can get up to 160,000 dollars free money from the government.

I would suggest that it is okay to rent a house because you may be moving city to city and you don’t want to confine to a particular home. But my point here is this while you are paying the rent and making the landlord rich, how about you owning one property and collecting rent from someone, while you move on from city to city? For example, you buy a property at half a million dollars, and you give 20% down payment of 100,000 dollars and then you take the bank loan of 400,000 dollars for 20 years, and then for the next 20 years, assuming that you don’t stay in the house, you rent the house for the next 20 years, and the tenant will pay the rent and you use the rental to pay the mortgage. Twenty years later, the house is fully paid out and valued at $1 million after 20 years. That is 10 times return on your initial down payment of $100,000. Property is the way to go.

"We are created for a purpose in whatever role we choose to play. And therefore, we need give our 100 per cent to whatever we do"

CC: What is the philosophy of life that you live by?

Even for myself, when I reflect, I see that each and every one of us has come to this earth as an angel of the Almighty. We are created for a purpose in whatever role we choose to play. And therefore, we need to give our 100 per cent to whatever we do. I feel the Almighty has created me to love as many people who come in contact with my life of love, care and support. The day when I am not doing the right thing, the Almighty will remove me from what I have and what I am doing right now.

CC: Where did you meet your wife, was it a love marriage?

Yes, it was a love marriage. We were both in the army and were army cadets together. When I went into the army at 18, as a cadet, my wife too was a cadet and we fell in love and that’s how we got married.

CC: What according to you, keeps a marriage?

As long as you have expectations from the other person, you will be disappointed. In a marriage; there is no point of having expectations from your spouse. The only way here is to communicate effectively and be unconditional in your love and giving. Expectations will ruin the marriage.

CC: Tell us about your children.

I have three children. The eldest one is 21 years old and she is in London studying Business Management. She is eagerly waiting to come back and work for me. And I have a set of twins a boy and a girl. They are 16 years old. They are also pursuing business management.

CC: What has been the role of your parents in shaping you up?

My dad and my mom were hugely responsible for what I am today. One of the most important lessons they taught me was responsibility and discipline which has helped me to come this far.

CC: What do you do in your leisure time?

Every year we go on holiday. Last year, I had gone to Mauritius in August, and the Maldives in December, where we went on a cruise. We travel at least twice a year and love places which have a lot of sunshine and sea.

Did the Covid-19 arrow strike at real estate?

Singapore’s property market is doing surprisingly well thanks to effective tackling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the government and the opening up of regional offices in Singapore by some major tech giants of China, says top property real estate leader Ismail Gafoor

Corporate Citizen: Has the real estate market in Singapore been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Ismail Gafoor: In fact, the real estate market in Singapore is doing well because the government tackled the issue very effectively. And probably because we have one of the lowest death rates to Covid-19. That’s why I think the market has rebounded strongly in the third quarter. The prices effectively increased by 0.8% as the volume of transactions increased hugely after the initial period when there were some restrictions. Singapore now has opened to phase two and the real estate segment is doing well, in fact, doing better than last year.

CC: When you say it’s doing better than last year, is it because of domestic or international customers?

I must say that international customers have reduced because of the Covid-19 restriction, but this has spurred developers to give discounts and exciting pricing to encourage a huge number of local Singaporeans and permanent residents to buy homes.

CC: To which economic segment do these buyers belong to?

Definitely, the luxury segment has taken a drop. By and large, the buyers are from the mass-market where units cost $1 million to $1.5 million and the middle-luxury market where the prices of units are around $3 million. These are the two segments that are doing very well. The luxury market is also slightly increasing in the volume of transactions in the third quarter.

The main demand comes from Mainland China. They are picking up the property because many tech giants from China like TikTok and others are starting their regional headquarters in Singapore. So there is an inflow of the company personnel from Mainland China.

"Before the pandemic, many Sales staff were living in their comfort zone. The crisis compelled them to embrace technology and connect with their customers virtually"

CC: With a workforce of 10,000 people, what strategies did you adopt to overcome the Covid-19 crisis?

We had to quickly move to the adoption and acceptance of the technology. Before the pandemic, many Sales staff were living in their comfort zone. The crisis compelled them to embrace technology and connect with their customers virtually, by staying at home during the circuit breaker (the term for lockdown in Singapore). During this phase, uniquely, over two hundred million dollars of transactions took place, despite the fact that the client did not physically view the property

We also managed to conduct a lot of training on how to use company tools and workflow platforms. Also, how to showcase property in the virtual space. Our sales managers were very comfortable with this new way of selling homes and we managed to get square and our market share did not cut deep, during the Covid-19 situation.

CC: Any lessons from the pandemic at a personal level?

The key lesson here is that one should never take anything for granted. Personally, the crisis brought me down to Ground Zero. I had the opportunity of spending more time with my loved ones at home; particularly, during the ten-week breather due to the circuit breaker. It suddenly dawned on me that we need to prioritise things in life. I underwent some new changes within me, one of them being the realisation that I’m able to run the business without having to physically meet my clients. Setting the priorities right by spending more quality time with my loved ones, I thought, was a real shift in the way we were doing things in the past.