This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 3, 2024 - June 9, 2024

Smart buildings are no longer just a visionary idea, they are fast becoming a game changer in the property management industry.

“Today, the smart city scenario is changing rapidly. We are witnessing the rise of smart buildings with interconnected technologies, where sensors communicate, systems synchronise, and building performance data are churned out for property managers to manage buildings and building services more efficiently and effectively,” Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) executive director of project management Mohamad Hamim noted in his keynote address at the Smart Building Conference 2024 held on May 20 at the Wyndham Grand Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

Echoing the same sentiments, Malaysian Institute of Property and Facility Managers (MIPFM) president Ishak Ismail in his opening 

address said technology, particularly proptech, has changed the property management market by offering new digital ways of satisfying customer needs and also facilitating the provision of quality property and facility management services.

Meanwhile, MIPFM committee member and conference organising chairman Low Han Hoe said the theme on smart buildings was appropriately chosen in line with the advancement of smart systems and technologies designed to enhance the efficiency and practicality of existing and future buildings.

The one-day event — organised by MIPFM — was attended by around 200 delegates from the real estate industry, professional bodies, government agencies and academia.

In his session titled “Smart Building with Technology”, UEM Edgenta Bhd (KL:EDGENTA) CEO Syahrunizam Samsudin gave an overview of his company’s efforts in adapting technology for the management of its assets globally.

“The property and facility management industry is quickly transforming from a traditional industry to a technology and data-driven one that circumnavigates the end user,” he said.

Syahrunizam added that since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has embarked on a journey of integrating and unifying its property and facility management systems and processes.

“We integrated everything. Hence, today I have unique information concerning more than 400 buildings worldwide and it is hosted in a command and contact centre here in Malaysia. I know exactly what work is being done and how many people are being deployed for work across the country and other parts of the world.”

He said the integration has allowed the company to identify its shortcomings and the level of service provided. “With all these technologies, we can manage the building and enable it to be more hyper-aware.”

Syahrunizam added that hyper-aware smart buildings can generate scenarios to ensure cost reduction in their management.

Taking Petronas Twin Towers (of which UEM Edgenta is the master integrator) as an example, he said that the command and contact centre uses machine learning and predictive analysis, among others, to enable some 15% in energy savings, 30% daylight factor and a Green Building Index (GBI) Gold rating for the development.

Meanwhile, CBRE Singapore head of client solutions for Asia Taranjot Gulati said in his presentation titled “Singapore Smart Buildings” that smart buildings are the way forward.

“One to two years from now, not a single building tenanted by a Fortune 500 company will be without a SmartScore or WiredScore certification. This is different from a GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) or LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, as smart scoring is on technology, experience, amenities, services and how connected the building is.

“As part of a global smart building advisory, which I head for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, we conducted research for 60 top buildings around the world and not one was from Malaysia. So, I think there is a lot of work to be done,” he added.

Taranjot shared that CBRE has its own property management portal that connects property managers, landlords and tenant representatives as well as heads of administration and real estate.

“We created a back end portal mobile app and a desktop version. It covers plant and equipment onboarding, people moving in and out, news, updates, polls and surveys, vendor onboarding, invoicing and billing, feedback and more. It’s all automated. We’ve stopped communication via email and phone calls as these are now being done through the portal. Every single piece of data is tracked so nothing is missed.

“We will be deploying this in about 5,000 to 6,000 buildings by the end of this year. In Asia-Pacific alone, CBRE [manages] approximately 450 million sq ft of space, so this portal should be going live in every property managed building by December.”

Having a tenant portal, he added, also helps empower the tenants to track everything on their own. “We did a two-way integration of the tenant portal and property management portal, which helps the property management team connect to the landlord and tenant, not the end user. So, once they have a triangular integration, they can manage everything on a day-to-day basis.”

Additionally, he said that having a digital twin or 3D visualisation of the buildings his company managed has also proved helpful. “It helps our property managers save at least five days of work monthly to do a job that is now automated with a digital twin. And every quarter, we spend about three days doing a presentation for our landlords and board members. With the digital twin, we can do all that with a single click of a button right in front of the clients. We can also generate quarterly and monthly predictions with it.”

It is possible to bring automation to older buildings, Taranjot said. “We’ve delivered a 20-year-old building, where the owners thought the cost was going to be exponential, but it wasn’t. We decided to install IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, which cost US$80 (RM377) rather than spend on integration, which costs US$100,000. We connected the sensors to the back end asset management system that automates all the work orders, and data started flowing in. And instead of spending six months working on integration, we did it in two months.”

Taranjot also shared some examples of smart buildings in Singapore that incorporate advanced technologies to improve efficiency, sustainability and the quality of life for occupants. They include CapitaSpring, Marina One, Nanyang Technological University’s sports hall known as The Wave, Capital Tower, Fusionopolis at one-north and Punggol Digital District.

During his session titled “Management of Common Estate”, MIPFM president Ishak Ismail, who is also the founder and managing director of IM Global Property Consultants Sdn Bhd, acknowledged that the concept of common estate and district management is still new in Malaysia.

“There are currently no specific regulations that clearly define the concept of common estate and district management, except for the term ‘common property’ that is governed by the Strata Management Act 2013 and Strata Titles Act 1985. This new concept needs to be defined more clearly,” he said.

According to him, the common estate agreement (CEA) implemented at Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) marks a new era of common ownership and public-private partnership.

“We know what are common properties, as clearly defined by and stipulated under the Strata Management Act and Strata Titles Act. But today, we’re looking at the ‘common estates concept’ that is now being used, as practised in the TRX development whereby a CEA, which is a legal agreement, was signed in 2019 between TRX City (master developer of TRX) and all the plot owners of the 70-acre project to formalise the collaboration between the stakeholders and ensure long-term asset maintenance, management and services provided for TRX’s infrastructure, public realms and other common facilities.

“The CEA also involves the local authority, namely DBKL, which owns the 10-acre TRX City Park, while TRX City undertakes the operations and maintenance of the common infrastructure by providing district management services,” added Ishak.

According to him, the common estate and district management concept has not been widely implemented around the world, except in the US, UK and Australia. He shared some US guidelines and regulations that are relevant to this management concept, such as the California Association of Community Managers Inc’s “Living in a California Common Interest Development” guideline, the Uniform Probate Code, the Pennsylvania Probate Estates and Fiduciaries Code, and the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act.

TRX City Sdn Bhd director of stakeholder relations and special projects Nita Azura Ishak, during her session titled “Case Study on TRX: Smart Building Through Design Integration and Optimisation”, said a structured approach was adopted at every stage of the TRX development — from master plan to implementation and operations — to make TRX “the most liveable financial district”. She said that the development review board controls the design aspect of all the plots within the district, while operations fall under district management, which is controlled by the company’s estate agreement.

“Now that TRX is in operation, the common estate agreement continues to be implemented, and TRX has its own by-law for the management and operations of the district. This also means that all plots jointly contribute to the cost to maintain and operate the district’s common infrastructure, and have their voices heard to ensure the service level and the enhancement of service level are there.

“Why we have this is because TRX owns most of the common infrastructure, like the roads and tunnels. It’s not like normal developments where the infrastructure is surrendered to the local authority. In TRX, we manage it ourselves through the common estate agreement.”

According to Nita, TRX City constantly looks into ways to improve TRX’s smart and sustainable features.

“TRX is the first development in Malaysia to receive a neighbourhood-level provisional GBI certification. GBI and LEED accreditation were also extended to all plots in TRX. This is the commitment by the plots whereby all buildings in TRX are green certified.

“We’ve also partnered with [French environmental services company] Veolia through a 20-year concessionaire so wastewater generated on-site will be recycled for non-potable water usage such as for flushing and watering plants. Basically, we have a reduction of over 50% in total potable water demand compared to a typical development, and this exceeds the international best practices standard of 40%.”

Nita highlighted some other key features at TRX, such as high-speed and seamless data connectivity, three-tier security supported by digital security, integrated traffic management systems, and transit-oriented development.

Mohd Yushanizar Md Yusoff, who is with DBKL’s city planning department, gave a snapshot of the latest Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2040 (KLSP2040), which was gazetted on Oct 19 last year.

“KL has two levels of development plans, namely the KLSP and the KL Local Plan (KLLP). The KLLP2040 is currently in the coordination stage of receiving feedback from the public and stakeholders, and to date, we have received more than 10,000 views,” he noted.

Among the challenges that KLSP2040 aims to address is the high population outflow from the city, said Yushanizar. “We saw the lowest population growth at 0.28% between 2017 and 2018, compared to previous years. In KLSP2020, we expected KL to have a population of two million, but currently we are only at 1.8 million. The population growth rate is very low.”

According to him, KL’s high property values are one of the main reasons for the population outflow to neighbouring states. “For example, house prices in areas like Seremban, Rawang, Semenyih and Kajang are still comparatively lower. Take a house price of RM600,000. You’ll likely get a [high-rise] strata unit in KL but in other states, you’ll probably be able to buy a landed property. People are willing to travel further for work for a more balanced lifestyle and from an affordability and economical point of view.”

Yushanizar noted that 39,100 people moved out of the state in 2016 and in 2019, a net population outflow of 22,500 was recorded. “We foresee this to grow. We can, however, try to lower the migration outflow by having more affordable homes around KL.”

Other challenges that the city is facing include the limited availability of land, climate change, economic performance, well-being and affordability levels and the changing population profile, he added.

Touching on the limited availability of land in KL, Yushanizar says that various policies and strategic steps have been identified to promote and encourage redevelopment projects.

“In the draft KLLP2040, we are offering incentives close to 100% for redevelopment projects to encourage building owners and developers to redevelop their land and property. Apart from retrofitting, we find redevelopment is one of the most effective ways to rejuvenate our city as we have several old and vacant buildings that might as well be redeveloped, repurposed or re-evaluated in terms of development or land use.”

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