Property Hall of Fame Inducts Industry Pioneers

The Property Council’s Hall of Fame has inducted two major industry figures. 

Canberran businessman the late Jim Service, and former academic and property investor Dr Seek Ngee Huat were inducted into the Property Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening.

As national president in 1996, Service led the change from the Building Owners and Managers Association to the Property Council of Australia, where he was also president.

He began in property by forming GKS Constructions with Len Goodwin and Arthur Kenyon in Belconnen, Canberra, before starting his own company, JG Service Pty Ltd in 1981. 

He received a centenary medal and was named Canberran of the Year in 2001, after which he received an Order of Australia in 2004. 

JG Service continues today as JGS Property, run by his son James Service.

Seek, meanwhile, completed his PhD at the Australian National University in the 1980s and set a standard for property-related research before moving to Singapore to run GIC (Government Investment Corporation), the first non-commodity-based sovereign wealth fund. 

Seek was head of research at Jones Lang Wotton (now JLL or Jones Lang LaSalle) when he joined GIC in 1996. 

It marked the start of Australians being hired by foreign firms to gain an edge on investing in Australian assets.

GIC is responsible for Singapore’s foreign reserves and is wholly owned by the Singaporean government. 

▲ Seek Ngee Huat, a real estate academic and former chairman of Singapore's GIC, has been inducted into the Australian Property Hall of Fame.

Revenue generated from GIC’s portfolio is tapped each year for the Singapore government’s budget and more than $US100 billion ($A140 billion) is invested through the portfolio annually, all outside Singapore.

While at GIC, Seek expanded its portfolio to hold major investments in many Australian iconic assets and continued the trend of hiring Australian property professionals to get the inside edge on the market. 

GIC’s first buy in Australia was in the same year Seek joined, snapping up an office block at 175 Liverpool Street in Sydney for $125 million.

Seek also was chairman of Global Logistic Properties from 2014 to 2018 during the largest private equity buyout in Asia before becoming chairman of GLP’s Fund Management Advisory Board and the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies at the National University of Singapore.

He also teaches at NUS as a Professor of Real Estate and has board positions at Brookfield Asset Management Inc in Canada, VCredit Holdings Limited in Hong Kong and the Centre for Liveable Cities in Singapore.

He is a senior advisor to Frasers Property Ltd and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.