This year represents the Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association’s (SHAREDA) 46th year of founding, a milestone that will be celebrated at its annual gala dinner. Themed ‘A Night of Synergy’, the dinner will be held on 28 September at the Grand Ballroom of The Magellan Sutera Harbour Resort in Kota Kinabalu.
This event will see celebrity emcee Gabriella Robinson—a global winner of the 2011 Miss Tourism International—welcoming guest-of-honour the Right Hon. Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor, industry players and business associates at a glittering black-tie dinner. Highlights of the evening will include Tawau-born songbird and recording artist Lim Wen Suen, the 2017 winner of The Voice Singapore and Malaysia.
This dinner is a much anticipated fixture in the Sabah society scene, and is entirely organised by the SHAREDA Council together with this year’s organising chairman, Seth Quek of WMG Holdings.
In celebrating its 46th anniversary, SHAREDA recognises the efforts of all that have come before, a membership strength that has pooled expertise, resources and time to become the prime mover of the state’s economy. “The leaders of SHAREDA had sat on numerous regulatory government committees in continuous engagements, close collaboration and networking with the authorities concerned to facilitate and help shape government policies and guidelines affecting the real estate and housing developments in Sabah and nationwide,” the association said in a statement. Its contributions also led it to be awarded the Sabah Societies’ Role Model in 2010 by the Registrar of Societies Malaysia, selected from more than 5,000 societies.
Among the most recent and visibly positive developments is the introduction of the Sabah MM2H programme. “SHAREDA welcomes the much-awaited Sabah MM2H programme announced recently by Datuk Christina Liew, State Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, with the federal government’s support and recognition of Sabah’s autonomy in managing its own initiatives in the aforesaid new MM2H programme,” says association president Datuk Chua Soon Ping.
“The essential requirement under the new Sabah MM2H programme is the purchase of a new high-rise property exceeding RM600,000, whether completed or under construction, residential or commercial. This measure aims to protect local buyers from unnecessary competition with foreigners, which could lead to speculative pressure on landed properties, which are still highly sought after by our local home-seekers.”
Other key achievements that SHAREDA has garnered over the years include:
- National Home Ownership Campaigns for Stamp Duty Exemptions for Residential Properties (1998-2003 and 2019-2023). SHAREDA acted as an intermediary for the government to execute and conduct the past 10 campaigns. Generated property sales value in billions of ringgit. Millions of house buyers benefited from the government’s initiatives on the stamp duty exemptions levied for Memorandum of Transfer and Loan Agreement executed.
- 1996: Formation of Malaysian Developers’ Council (formerly known as Tripartite) comprising REDHA Malaysia, SHAREDA and Sarawak Housing And Real Estate Developers’ Association.
- The successful organisation of SHAREDA’s annual property exposition, PropEX. The expo is a one-stop hub and also serves as a platform for developers to display and unveil their new and ongoing projects under one roof for house buyers or property investors to shop and peruse attractive offers to boost the market supply and demand.
- The SHAREDA Excellence Awards to acknowledge and celebrate individuals or companies that have demonstrated exceptional performance, achievements, contributions and projects in the real estate and housing industry since 2008 till to date. It is usually celebrated during the annual dinner.
- SHAREDA’s contributions in the millions of ringgit over the years to the needy community and targeted organisations of caring societies. These include raising funds to help build shelters, education centres or schools, such as the 3,165 sq ft hostel for the residents of The Sabah Society For The Blind, Tuaran; Study Hall of St Theresa’s Hostel, Kota Marudu; Montfort Youth Training Centre; and more.
- SHAREDA Institute, established in 2024 with the primary objective of conducting research, training and events; providing education with a Property Developer Course in five modules, in collaboration with Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology; complementing the government’s initiative on affordable housing development and supporting ancillary developments.
Photography: Courtesy of SHAREDA
