Special Feature

[ERA IWD 2024] Doris Ong: Empowering the next generation in real estate

March 8, 2024 3:00 PM SGT

Doris Ong: Properties are the most significant purchase for many Singaporeans, and we should not just be salespersons but valued advisers that can make a positive impact on our clients’ lives (Photo: Albert Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)

ERA Celebrates International Women's Day 2024

For the past two decades, ERA’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Doris Ong has dedicated her weekends to visiting showflats. For Doris, it is crucial to “feel the ground”, and showflats are where the “action” happens. “Being on-site not only allows me to engage with salespersons, but it also keeps me in touch with buyer and market sentiments.”

Unsurprisingly, this commitment has yielded insights that have proven valuable. Over the years, Doris has accumulated wealth through investments in new launch properties. “I believe wealth should come from investments, and I invest where I am most comfortable. All my investments have been in new homes, as this is familiar ground to me.”

Heartened by a trend of younger buyers aspiring to build wealth through property investments, Doris shares a story about a young Singaporean buyer who recently sold a “smaller” new launch unit he purchased three years ago. He used the profits to buy a larger property this year. “The key is to buy within your means, as early as you can,” Doris adds. “When young buyers are willing to exercise delayed gratification, it usually works well for them.”

Indeed, one of Doris’s primary ambitions is to mentor the next generation of real estate salespersons, extending beyond merely catering to the needs of buyers. She aims to educate and empower buyers to make prudent property purchases that can kick-start their property wealth journeys. “Properties are the most significant purchase for many Singaporeans, and we should not just be salespersons but valued advisers that can make a positive impact on our clients’ lives.”

Doris’s journey

For as long as she can remember, the real estate sector has always fascinated Doris. Upon completing her ‘A’ Levels, she enrolled in the Building and Estate Management (BEM) Course at the National University of Singapore. The course covered business, accountancy, economics, construction, building survey and law. “Real estate is an essential need, and there will always be a demand for homes. Enrolling in BEM was a natural choice that would allow me to gain maximum knowledge across various aspects of real estate,” she explains.

Even though she received a job offer from a business consultancy firm upon graduation, Doris felt she should follow her passion and go where she could be in the thick of the action within the industry. It was then that she made the pivotal decision to join ERA, as the real estate agency was seeking young talent to grow the business.

ERA’s corporate women leaders (from left): Prateeksha Raina, Head of Information Security; Lily Lee, Senior Vice President, Corporate HR; Ong Peili, Assistant Vice President, Business Services & Partnerships; Joy Koh, Chief Marketing Officer; Doris Ong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer; Priscilla Chua, Senior Vice President, Project Marketing; Lucy Lai, Senior Vice President, IT Innovation; and Wong Shanting, Vice President, Research and Market Intelligence (Photo: Albert Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)

Room for Innovation

Doris started as a management trainee and was exposed to many areas of the real estate agency business. “We had the opportunity to learn and try new things,” she says. “There was also more room for innovation.”

She tried everything. “I even tagged along with the experienced salespersons, and most of them were amazed that a fresh graduate would want to be a salesperson when the trend was to work in consultancy firms, developers, or government bodies like HDB, URA and JTC,” she adds.

Digitalisation, uplifting professionalism

ERA was the first agency to elevate the level of professionalism in the industry, according to Doris. The primary approach was through training programmes aimed at equipping salespersons with the necessary skills. This commitment to training was part of ERA’s initiative to bring in professional standards to the trade. Additionally, the firm was at the forefront of digitalisation, adopting Real Net in collaboration with Singapore Network Services.

Not surprisingly, ERA was also the first to embrace the open AI platform Chat GPT and to integrate it with its proprietary app, SALES+. “SALES+ changes how salespersons manage their daily work, equipping them with automated features that save time on tasks like copywriting, content generation and translations, allowing them to focus on more dynamic aspects of their job,” says Doris. “We see AI as a platform for enhancing the productivity of our salespersons.”

Aside from contributing to raising professional standards in the industry, Doris also dedicated time to the valuation department of the company. She is a Licensed Appraiser registered with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and a member of the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers. She believes that her experience and knowledge as a valuer have proven beneficial, particularly when tasked with pioneering ERA’s project marketing department.

She also believes that her time spent across various aspects of the business has been key to her success in ERA’s venture into project marketing. “The challenge then was to break into a market dominated by established international property consultancies; we had to bring something new to the table for the developers,” she adds.

Breaking into project marketing

Recognising the opportunity in the primary market and how ERA could tailor a different approach to project marketing, Doris was given the task of leading ERA’s foray into project marketing, something no agency had been able to accomplish. “At that time, the consultancies had full-time, salaried staff to handle project marketing for developers,” says Doris.

During the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/1998, ERA introduced a different business model: bringing buyers to developers. “Instead of developers putting out ads for buyers to come to showflats, we had salespersons market the developments and bring clients in, providing more value to developers while offering clients personalised service. Besides, we had the means to share the benefits of the primary market with a much larger pool of potential buyers,” says Doris. “Many of our initial buyers have benefitted from our salespersons introducing them to new homes; it’s the same today as it was in 1997.”

Doris’s project marketing repertoire is stunning, with more than 60,000 units sold since setting up the business unit, which has marketed more than 450 projects. This successful business model was implemented throughout ERA Asia Pacific. Today, ERA is involved in marketing projects from around the region — Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and other markets popular with Singaporeans, such as Australia and the UK.

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ESG initiatives

Doris took on the role of chairperson of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), overseeing the firm’s management sustainability committee. Her motivation behind championing this cause is to create more awareness to go green, inspire sustainable practices, and to encourage people to give back to the community.

In November 2021, ERA became Singapore’s first real estate agency to launch an ESG initiative and has raised almost $1 million since. It has also collaborated with various organisations to create a greater impact.

E – Environmental

In 2022, ERA participated in Hong Kah North’s Eco Carnival. The real estate firm will also be supporting Hong Kah North in setting up an Eco Hub and community gardens in Tengah New Town. Doris also took part in the NorthWest Community Development Council’s (NorthWest CDC) Sustainability Forum to advocate green living to residents and its salespersons.

In 2023, ERA collaborated with Zero Waste SG to launch the “Bring Your Own Bag” campaign with participating supermarkets such as NTUC FairPrice, Cold Storage, Giant, Sheng Siong and Prime. It also conducted a collection drive for reusable bags.

S – Pay it forward

ERA is a strong supporter of ComLink @ Jurong West’s Gift-A-Family programme, to enable more ComLink families and children to access opportunities and resources to gain better educational development and to improve their lives. Doris firmly believes the avenue to “dream” is as important as basic needs. She believes education is key to “breaking the cycle” for vulnerable families. Gift-A-Family donations are given to ComLink families staying in rental flats.

ERA has also participated in NorthWest CDC’s Service Weeks since last year. These sessions involve pop-up markets to distribute daily necessities and food items to vulnerable families.

G – Governance

ERA made it into the Singapore Book of Records for the Most Number of Online Sustainability Pledges Made in A Day, with 1,968 pledges. The pledges were made during ERA’s Asia Pacific Business Conference on March 21, 2023. It was aimed at encouraging more awareness among salespersons to go green and help drive Singapore to a more sustainable future.

The ups and downs of a dynamic industry

Having weathered numerous crises — the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997/1998, a recession in 2001 to 2002, Sars in 2003, the global financial crisis in 2008, and Covid from 2020 to 2022; as well as 12 rounds of property cooling measures from 2009 to present — Doris has become resilient and resourceful.

“In every crisis, everyone tells me, ‘This is the worst; it’s very challenging,’” she says. “But when it’s over, upon looking back, we have always managed to emerge stronger than before.”

Doris observes: “Real estate is very dynamic; whatever is thrown at us, we just have to face the challenge. And when the market rebounds, there are always new opportunities.”

She points to 2018 and 2019 when several mega projects with over 1,000 units were launched during cooling measures. However, many buyers who purchased units in these mega projects when they were launched four to five years ago have since offloaded them in sub-sales with gains of $200,000 to $300,000 just before completion. That was why there was a spike in sub-sales in the last two years, Doris notes. “Some of these buyers were investors,” she adds. “They used the gains from these OCR (Outside Central Region) projects to reinvest or upgrade to new project launches in the RCR (Rest of Central Region).”

Over the years, Doris has mentored countless salespersons and agency leaders, and supported their growth throughout. She has also witnessed buyers upgrading their lifestyles through asset progression. The job satisfaction of seeing people grow their business, put food on the table and enhance their quality of life is immense, says Doris.

In a traditionally male-dominated industry, Doris’s journey is a beacon for women in the real estate landscape, proving that expertise, commitment and passion know no gender boundaries. Her story encourages the dismantling of stereotypes and highlights the limitless potential of women in any professional arena.