This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 3, 2026 - August 9, 2026

Driving into Mah Sing Group Bhd’s (KL:MAHSING) M Oscar residential development in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur feels like arriving at a resort. Cruising up the S-shaped driveway, one is greeted by tall columns and an expansive drop-off area, complete with a water feature between the two tower lobbies.

Since completion in 2024, the two-tower development has been managed by the developer’s property management team. The management corporation (MC) was formed recently, with newly minted chair Albert Lim elected alongside six other committee members. This means decisions requiring the MC’s consideration can finally be made, allowing residents to be more involved in managing funds and ensuring the building remains well maintained.

Lim, who is retired but used to work in tech-based multinational corporations, has sat on many MCs before and is familiar with the expectations and running of a strata development. This gives him a unique perspective on what it takes to maintain a property and how to work with the property manager.

“Speaking from a homeowner’s point of view, I have stayed in condominiums for more than 20 years, and I have seen the good, the bad, the ugly and the terrible. I rank M Oscar very highly, and I am very satisfied to have chosen to live and retire here. In most new condos that I know, once the property is passed from the developer’s vacant possession over to the MC, you begin to see a deterioration in service levels,” he says.

“For M Oscar, up until now, it has more than maintained those levels. It is always on a path of constant improvement. There is strong collaboration between the management office, the headquarters team and the owners, leading to many daily improvements. The lines of communication are continuously getting better, and we are receiving fewer complaints of a highly angry nature.

“We also have a separate WhatsApp group where the feedback shows that many owners are feeling increasingly reassured about their decision to buy here.”

Due to open communication and hard work, the property was in good order when handed over to the MC on May 9 this year. Also, for fostering a strong community spirit, M Oscar has been awarded Gold in the Below 10 Years — Multiple-owned Strata Residential (High-rise) category at The Edge Malaysia Best Managed & Sustainable Property Awards 2026. This was an improvement from the Silver award they won last year.

Accompanying Lim for the interview are Mah Sing property management deputy general manager Loh Cheng Cheong and chief experience officer Bernard Yong, who explain how they ensured that, by the time Lim took office, all the basic foundations — such as financial accounts and service providers — were already in place.

Before the MC was formed, Loh and his team were managing the property, with support from Yong.

Loh explains how initially, they had been engaging with residents to build trust and familiarity as well as foster a community.

“We invest heavily in resident engagements. For instance, during the Chinese New Year period we managed to get a commercial sponsor for a lion dance and light refreshments, for our Lantern Festival event where we had mooncake, lanterns and quizzes. Last year, we also organised a Hari Raya event. While these initiatives might not show immediate monetary or tangible asset value, they significantly help build a strong community, which Albert can see reflecting on the ground,” he says.

“The way neighbours talk to one another changes when a community is strong. For example, we had an incident where an owner faced a plumbing issue with their toilet, which overflowed, and the neighbours voluntarily went into the unit with mops to help clean it up.”

Lim agrees and says, “That is the kind of community spirit you rarely find in other condominiums, where people typically only care about themselves.”

Adding to this, Yong says the avenues for residents to reach out to the management team and have their views or concerns heard have widened.

“The reduction in irate residents coming in to scream at the management office ties directly into providing more channels for feedback. Resident engagement is not just about having fun or building rapport, though those are major components; it is about providing an alternative, highly responsive platform for feedback. M Oscar actually leads all of our M Series projects in terms of MY Mah Sing app utilisation.

“Residents use the app because they receive fast responses. We closely track emails, calls, walk-ins, Google reviews and app interactions. Because these channels are closely monitored and feedback is systematically addressed, there is very little need for residents to get irate,” he explains.

Residents at M Oscar and other Mah Sing projects benefit from the lessons learnt from other developments under the Mah Sing umbrella. These lessons have helped in the customisation and enhancement of the MY Mah Sing app, while also establishing property management best practices.

Yong explains, “The benefit of Mah Sing managing multiple properties is that we learn from a wide variety of site experiences. Individual sites are led by building managers who report to area property managers. All of those field learnings are fed back into our monthly corporate strategic sessions.

“We use those sessions to set long-term directions, roll out new initiatives and manage operational changes. If a strategy proves successful on one site, we institute it uniformly across our entire managed portfolio.”

Besides promoting closer bonds and community within the development, vendors also play a part in the activities organised.

“Our commercial retail mart vendor sponsored a professional lion dance event here at M Oscar. It was a fantastic event and free of charge. It highlights a sense of community and a desire from stakeholders to contribute back to the property,” says Loh.

He adds that the shop operator invited his suppliers to run complimentary food sampling booths, which was very well received by the residents.

While the community elements are taken care of, one matter that Lim highlights since being on the MC, was to retain all core service vendors. This is to avoid any disruption to the running of the building but also not to stress out the other MC members.

“If a system or wheel is operating well, there is no need to disrupt it unless a major issue occurs. This stability is vital because almost all of our current committee members are serving for the first time. They need to learn how to collaborate effectively with the management office,” Lim says.

However, one aspect that needed urgent attention was the shuttle service to the nearby Taman Naga Emas MRT station.

“We initially faced a significant challenge with our resident shuttle van service. We had a driver who would report to work completely at his own whim without giving any prior notice. This was unfair to the residents who rely heavily on that shuttle to commute daily to the MRT station.

“I communicated the issue to the management office immediately, and they arranged a temporary replacement driver. I personally took the trouble to ride on the shuttle van myself to audit the service and verify the resident feedback on the ground. I found the new temporary driver to be highly pleasant and professional, so I requested the manager to retain him permanently,” he shares.

For many, expectations of life in a strata development differ from the realities behind the scenes, where the management committee runs the show under the guidance of the management office.

Lim advises residents to take note of the bigger picture so that a harmonious working relationship between the residents and management office is cultivated.

“There is a common misconception in Malaysian condominium living where owners think, ‘I pay my maintenance fees and sinking fund, so the management company must serve me’.

“In reality, under the Strata Management Act, it is a collective contribution where every owner pools resources into a common fund to maintain their shared property. It is a completely different mindset. The personnel in the management office and the cleaners are not personal servants,” he emphasises.

Lim explains that the residents — who are made up of mostly young, first-time homebuyers and couples — are gradually understanding this dynamic. While comparisons are made, eventually they realise that M Oscar is managed well and sits at a high standard.

Also, to manage everyone’s expectations, the unofficial community chat rooms that residents use are utilised to explain situations clearly to avoid any miscommunication.

“Whenever issues are raised, the MC takes a proactive approach by joining the chat to explain the rationale behind operational choices, why certain steps are being taken, or why a specific resolution might take a few days to implement.

“Rushing into hasty operational decisions often creates more trouble in the long term. Writing transparently to the community and explaining the logical steps the management office must take to thoroughly investigate an issue helps bridge the gap,” he says.

As the interview draws to a close, Lim highlights some key agenda points that the MC is looking into.

“A primary point on our current meeting agenda is long-term cash flow projection and building up our capital reserves to buffer against unexpected global economic shifts. Common area electricity consumption is our largest fixed expense, so energy mitigation is our main target. We are looking to adopt newer technologies that draw substantially less raw power,” he says.

With the newly elected MC on board to drive future development plans and ensure continued community engagement, M Oscar’s residents and the building itself are in good hands.

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