Special Feature

16-year veteran realtor Harvey Chia makes market leaders out of clients

April 14, 2023 3:00 PM SGT

Realtor Harvey Chia upgraded his homes from an HDB flat in his twenties to a landed property today, which he is rebuilding into a two-generational home.

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Realtor Harvey Chia uses his own life experiences to help families navigate the next step of building their multi-generational dream home

For many Singapore residents, buying landed property is as much an emotional affair as it is a financial one. This is not just because the returns on investment hold great promise, but also that it is the only option families have to keep three generations under one roof.

Realtor Harvey Chia cannot agree more, having upgraded his homes from an HDB flat in his twenties to a landed property today, which he is rebuilding into a two-generational home. Having acquired life lessons from these experiences and applying them to his work to help clients make informed decisions renders Chia’s job meaningful.

Most realtors are trained to help buyers with their individual portfolios, but coordinating those with their children’s, parents’, and even in-laws’, involves a tonne of moving parts. Among these are different property segments, asset classes, timelines, life stages, liquidities and personal goals. But this is where Chia’s life before becoming a realtor comes into play.

Having spent over a decade at financial institutions and real estate consultancies, Chia has under his belt successful en-bloc projects of scale. Land price is a massive part of the local property equation and his wealth of experience with developers empowers clients to stretch their profit margins and pick properties with greater conviction.

In land-scarce Singapore, whether one should take a position in real estate is a common-sensical question. Product, timing, and size are the real headscratchers for investors. Chia’s track record in private-equity real estate funds, where he managed the portfolios of high-net-worth clients, has proven valuable in helping clients proportion theirs. With a worldly understanding of the sensitivities across real estate and financial products, his clients’ budgets are deployed with the bigger picture in mind.

Currently, Chia is the head investment advisory and strategist as well as a district director leading a team of close to 20 realtors with a combined experience of specialisation ranging from capital markets, industrial, commercial and mortgage financing at Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI). He has secured a consistent foothold among the top performers and received multiple Pegasus awards – the highest accolade within the agency – and consistent awards with Singapore Estate Agents Association (SEAA), which are the industry standard.

As an authority on capital markets and investments, he delivers keynote speeches at large-scale seminars with high-net-worth individuals in the audience, influencing their investment moves to beat the market.

Chia uses his own life experiences to help families navigate the next step of building their multi-generational dream home

An all rounded market leader

Chia’s holistic approach and experience with a myriad of asset classes and segments have greatly benefitted clients. He is well-versed in market trends, property picks, legacy planning, and complex portfolios comprising multiple properties.

He shares an example of how he had to nimbly restructure the portfolios of various members of a family for them to live together under one household.

“I knew this family who owned two condo units and one HDB flat. The aim was to gather everybody into one household and navigate challenges in the local real estate landscape,” he says. “Portfolio restructuring was the most cost-effective solution for this client to fulfil her goals. It took us three years, but we were able to achieve them.”

Having owned and transacted multiple properties in Singapore and abroad, Chia feels he is the best person for the realtor job because he applies what he learns. “I understand how markets shift, and I like to make pre-emptive moves, rather than reactive ones. I like to be one step ahead of the curve, and to do this is to take bold steps and be the first to buy in. It shows conviction that I have my skin in the game,” he adds.

Chia says: “I believe that a good realtor is a market leader, not a market follower. There is no good person who starts a company and tells you to buy their shares, but doesn't want to keep some for themselves. That’s not putting your money where your mouth is. Being able to understand things and then giving advice has a lot more weight and credibility, I feel, if I live by example.”

“I can sleep at night knowing that the purchases I’ve made on behalf of my clients will stand the test of time and turn a profit, growing in capital value and hedging well against inflation. It’s not about crystal-balling the market. It’s about making calculated moves by being logical, tactical, and practical. If clients aspire to make sound investments and expand their real estate portfolio, I can definitely create value for them,” he adds.

A rebuilding consultant in the making

Now in the next phase of his life, Chia is taking the bold step of rebuilding a landed property from the ground up. According to him, the value of a landed home is best extracted through rebuilding. Homeowners can create something that lasts for generations and evolves alongside their lifestyles and life-stages.

Rebuilding, however, is a route that many new homeowners shun due to their gaps in knowledge. Naturally, the options for large or multi-generational families are limited. “With the condo canvas, you can’t change it from a four-room to a six-, seven- or eight-bedroom. For landed homes, it’s always an option. What people want is the freedom to dictate their canvas,” he says.

From managing timelines to juggling projects, Chia is now navigating the tedium of rebuilding so he can create additional value for clients who wish to follow in his footsteps. “The motivation to rebuild was to show clients, ‘Hey, this guy has been there, done that, and has real advice to give; he has this life experience of putting real money down, going through the process and living to tell it,’” he emphasises.

Through this experience, Chia has acquired new knowledge about land surveying and construction that he shares with buyers who are intent on rebuilding. On the flipside, by maximising the potential of a landed home, he is also well-placed to help landed homeowners sell their property by expanding its possibilities.

Along with that, he has also amassed a bevy of new contacts which could be useful for prospects down the line. To find out more, go to Chia’s content platform, Property Wealth Decoded, where he has documented his journey.