“I CREATED PIA FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S BENEFIT.”

JUSTIN WANG, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE PROPERTY INVESTORS ALLIANCE, IS TURNING THE PROPERTY INDUSTRY ON ITS HEAD.

- Jennifer Sijnja

Justin Wang is on a mission to revolutionise the property industry. Together with his staff and employees of more than 400 at the Property Investors Alliance (PIA), he is determined to combat a lack of trust in the industry and encourage individuals to make smart investment decisions by investing in property, offering them the tools to make informed decisions and providing management support for the long-term.

Before migrating to Australia in 1993, Justin taught Mandarin Chinese literature in Chinese high schools. Upon arriving in Sydney, he began working in various jobs – in grocery retail, door-to-door sales for the telecommunications company Orange, and as a chef in a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant, while undertaking an MBA course at the University of Technology, Sydney. In 2002, he decided to start work as a real estate agent. Two years later, following a particularly bad market adjustment in which “the real estate agents were the worst hit”, Justin identified a pressing need for a new property investment model, and created PIA in 2005.

“PIA is a very comprehensive company that started as a simple idea,” Justin tells The CEO Magazine. “In early 2004, many people believed that property was no longer a good investment.” Investors began to offload their investment properties, and real estate agents, too, started to lose confidence in the industry. This didn’t quite seem right to Justin. “I cannot just follow other people’s opinions,” he admits. “I have my own views.” So he decided to do something about it.