Johor Bahru – A group of 8 students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) travelled to Sydney, Australia as part of the Real Estate Research Attachment Programme from 1st to 14th April 2019. This programme was jointly organised by UTM International and Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying. During the programme, students attended not only the classes and seminars offered at Western Sydney University (WSU) but also participated in the industrial visit to several major property players in Sydney such as AMP Capital, Tepalia and Colliers. Students had the opportunity to attend classes and workshops coordinated by professors and lecturers at WSU on Real Estate Market Outlook, Sustainable Building and Future Real Estate Career in order to help them obtain valuable input, reflection, new ideas, innovative transformation and new opportunities especially on the Australian real estate market. Indeed, this programme allows these final year students taking the Bachelor of Science (Property Management) programme to have a better outlook and to broaden their opportunities in the real estate profession abroad.

Zulaikha Charles, one of the participants involved in the programme thought that  this opportunity provided a new perspective for students especially on the international property market. “We talked a lot about another perspective of real estate market where Malaysian government need to take the opportunity to learn from one of the best global market players” Zulaikha said, “but until you’ve had the opportunity to see something other than what you have been typically exposed to in the classroom, you would not be able to foresee what is actually happening in real life. I am hoping that this programme will continue to be carried out in future”.

The real estate research attachment programme began in 2015 in Brisbane. Dr. Muhammad Najib Razali was the coordinator of the programme until 2018.