Before Nigel Lee recommends a property to any client, he asks himself: ‘WIBT?’ which stands for ‘Would I buy this’. He continues: "Would I buy this if I had similar or less financial resources than them?" The real estate associate does not believe in recommending any property that he wouldn’t personally endorse for himself.

An associate group director at PropNex, Lee is one of the company’s fastest-rising real estate agents today. But three years ago, he was leading a very different life — in 2020, he was pulling all-nighters to attain a real estate salesperson (RES) certificate and full-time economics and finance degree simultaneously.

“I started the RES course even before graduation because I was sure this would be my vocation,” he says. “I was studying finance, but the idea of helping people attain their dream home and adding property assets as an investment was inspiring and attractive. I don’t believe in getting a job for the career benefits; if you’re diligent, your results will speak for themselves, and the benefits will come along anyway.”

He became a certified real estate agent in 2021 amid strict pandemic restrictions and juggling his final year of studies. It was not easy, but there was an upside. “I could enjoy financial freedom even as a student, like a few other people I knew working part-time as property agents while finishing their studies,” he explains. The difficulty was building up a network when you couldn’t meet people.

---

---

“Before Covid-19, we could hold roadshows and connect with potential or interested buyers. This was impossible during the pandemic,” he recalls. “So I had to rely on the contacts I’d made through the part-time jobs I’d taken in the past. I’d been a drive-home valet and a salesperson for filtered water taps during semester breaks, and I reached out to them to share that I was becoming a real estate agent in case they needed one.”

One of Lee’s former clients gave him his first listing and property sale. “They believed in me and took a chance on a budding agent who would work doubly hard for them, and it paid off,” he says. That helped his career take off. Lee was one of PropNex’s top rookies of the year in 2021 and rose quickly to become one of the company’s top producers in 2022. He has received the Platinum Achievers award multiple times in the last two years, an impressive milestone for someone his age.

Lee’s real estate focus is primarily on mass market clients looking at the city centre or city fringe areas, which he defines as “the bulk of Singaporeans who are upgrading from public housing to executive or private condo, or from condo to landed properties”. But he has also noticed an increasing number of interested buyers skewing younger.

“There’s a lot of interest today from people my age or slightly older who are analysing real estate. Some are just curious or perhaps planning for the future. Others have existing capital from alternative investments or other sources, or perhaps their families are supporting their property purchases,” he says. “But we’re seeing buyers leapfrog the traditional process of buying a HDB apartment and steadily climbing the property ladder towards private housing. They’re buying a condo as their first property. As buying habits are changing, we need to be able to offer them relevant and objective advice.”

He points out that every real estate purchase involves emotional and objective factors. “As agents, we can support their emotional journey in the purchase, but we can only objectively influence them,” he explains. “And objectively, I’d say that the core central region (CCR) and city fringe offers great value today, especially as units in the outer core region (OCR) are closing in on the price difference. The premium for a CCR condo is 20% on average or even less, and the potential for value increase is higher. So objectively, it’s worth the long-term investment. Many of my younger clients who bought in the CCR are already reaping a value growth.”

Lee's process to nurture and engage clients has proven effective. As he says: “Success isn’t one-off; it should be replicable repeatedly.” Lee also developed a framework to help agents develop their processes based on their skill sets. As a trainer and facilitator for PropNex and team leader, Lee has helped agents in his advisory team under Matthew Lam, who is also from PropNex. Lee also regularly shares this framework with Lam's advisory team and the training and onboarding programmes that the property agency hosts for new agents.

This is one aspect of Lee’s north star: To help new owners and younger clients invest in property that will reap returns for them and help young real estate agents do the same for their clients. His growing team currently has seven agents, among which some juggle their studies with a real estate career, just like he did when he started. He is expanding steadily, hoping to find agents with a similar mindset without spreading himself too thin.

“Saying you want to be a leader and mentor is easy, but it takes time and energy to provide them with the right support. I spend time with each agent every week, where we discuss potential sales, and I join their appointments, or they observe me at mine. It’s very hands-on. As for myself, I’m lucky that I have a team leader who mentored me when I started and continues to support me today. I want to be able to do the same for others.” It is clear that Lee is no longer a rookie today — he is a rising star in the property industry.

For more information,

Contact Nigel Lee | 98448344

Associate Group Director (R063275B)

PropNex Realty Pte Ltd

---