Kelvin Fong takes the helm of PropNex as CEO, Ismail Gafoor remains Executive Chairman
PropNex also announced a $6 million payment to the Neighborhood Chest over a 12-month duration, the largest single contribution to the charity in its history. The amount was raised through voluntary pledges of a portion of sales payments by PropNex representatives, in addition to staff and management. The local agency authorized a memorandum of recognizing with Community Chest, vowing to contribute $1.5 million annually from 2025 to 2027.
Gafoor moves back after top PropNex Realty to become a dominant realty agency in Singapore. Throughout his period, he looked after the business’s listing on the Singapore Exchange in July 2018, along with the firm’s regional growth in recent years. Nowadays, PropNex has established a market existence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia. It has a consolidated network of greater than 16,000 real estate agents.
Fong joined PropNex in 2002 and was assigned an executive leader in June 2018 and consequently promoted to deputy CEO in August 2023. “I’ve had the opportunity of growing together with PropNex for over two decades, and I’m deeply committed to safeguarding the culture that has actually made us who we are,” says Fong.
Lastly, Gafoor released a self-enrichment book entitled I Am Not Good Enough, which portrays his personal life journey, building up PropNex and his leadership worths. Profits from the sale of the 27-chapter book are going to be donated to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. The book will be offered from July 16.
The tasks of deputy CEO will be shared amongst six essential forerunners, particularly Eddie Lim, senior vice-president and chief agency officer; Marcus Luah, director of business growth; Bobby Sng, head of development leadership; Ken Ng, head of development business; Benjamin Tan, head of business method; and Cijay Tew, head of training and development. PropNex claims that there are no strategies to fill the deputy CEO function at this time.
In a press activity on July 15 revealing the management shift and various other firm efforts, Gafoor stated that the splitting up of the functions of exec chairman and CEO improves the company’s overall corporate governance by formalising the division of control and management.
The endowment fund will help to secure a PropNex Foundation, collectively developed by Gafoor and PropNex co-founder Alan Lim, that intend to increase the fund to $25 million over the next 10 years. Returns from the structure’s investment will go towards programmes that support underprivileged students and educational efforts.
Mainboard-listed real estate company PropNex has announced that Kelvin Fong will take the business as its new chief executive officer, stepping up from his former role as deputy CEO. Outgoing CEO Ismail Gafoor, who co-founded the homegrown company 25 years ago, will remain as the company’s exec chairperson. He is going to proceed to be actively associated with assisting the business’s strategic course, stakeholder involvement, and Board management.
He adds that as CEO, his emphasis will be on empowering PropNex’s beyond 13,000 sales force in Singapore, innovating its solutions, and improving operational effectiveness. Its total salesperson head count in Singapore translates to about 35% of the market share.
The leadership shift comes as PropNex celebrates its 25th anniversary, marking the occasion with several community efforts and the building of a $10 million endowment fund.
Other leadership appointments at PropNex were introduced in March. Dominic Lee who was heading the deluxe team for the previous ten years, is head of investment sales. Simultaneously, Jason Tan assumed the role of principal approach officer. He was the advisory affiliate branch district director at PropNex, leading a team of over 1,000 sales representatives. Tan also worked as a technology consultant on PropNex’s proprietary apps: Investment Suite and Business Suite.
“PropNex has continually demonstrated that even as we remain to grow our sales force in Singapore and in the area, we have stayed clear of functional slowness and concentrated on improving the overall productivity of our brokers,” claims Gafoor, pointing out internal numbers that show transactions by PropNex agents represented about 64% of all resale HDB, private residential new launches, and resale condo transactions in Singapore last year.
The freshly developed PropNex Foundation was officially started at a company-wide event at Marina Bay Sands on July 15, graced by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who supervised the first disbursement of $254,000 to 160 students.
