Sabah Housing And Real Estate Developers Association (SHAREDA) formerly known as Sabah Housing Developers' Association (1992) or Sabah Housing Developers' Association (SHDA), is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

The name change was to reflect the equally important role of property development other than housing.

In 2005, SHAREDA has renamed and expanded its Committee to "COUNCIL" that consists of 15 office bearers due to the increased workload and the need to form sub-committees to deal with the various issues facing members to benefit the Association and the industry on the whole.

SHAREDA brings together developers, pooling their expertise and resources to ensure that the industry takes up and plays its role as a key mover of the economy. Through the years, SHAREDA members sat on numerous regulatory government committees and their views helped to shape many government policies and real estate and housing development.

Datuk William C. V. Fong was one of the founding members and served as the founding Chairman (1978-1980) of the Association. Others who served as Chairmen were the late Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Wong Chik Lim (1981-1984), Datuk Yap Pak Leong (1985-1989), Datuk Yong Loi Thiam (1993-2000) and Tuan Haji Abu Bakar M. Yahya (2001-2004). After the Association was renamed its Committee to “Council”, the Honorary Mr JP Kong Kwok Wah became the 1st President holding office for a term of two (2) years from 2005-2006 and was re-elected back in office for the another term from 2007 to 2008.

The Association started with 15 members, and had since grown from strength to strength with 156 members at present.

To mark its 20th Anniversary in 1998, SHAREDA acquired its own premises at Beverly Hills Plaza, Kota Kinabalu. Then on 27th March 2002, the office of SHAREDA Secretariat was established and became operational. In year 2003, an additional office adjacent to the existing Association's premises was purchased which was officially declared open by Tuan Haji Abu Bakar M Yahya on September 23, 2004. Subsequently in April 2007, another adjoining lot was bought by the Association. At the present moment, the total area of the Secretariat Office is 2,783 sq. ft. and fully equipped with office automation and facilities including a mini auditorium, a conference room, a filing room and an administrative office space.

In the above endeavours, then came the formation of the Malaysian Developers' Council (MDC) on 12.10.2001, formerly known as Tripartite comprised of Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (REHDA) Malaysia, Sarawak Housing And Real Estate Developers' Association (SHEDA) (formerly known as Sarawak Housing Developers' Association – “SHDA”) and SHAREDA. The main objective of the Council is to provide a forum for consultation on issues affecting the housing industry in the country and to foster closer relationship amongst the 3 Associations. Each Association takes turn to host the MDC meeting once a year and then changed to twice a year commencement in year 2007. The list of MDC meetings held are stated in the table below:-

Description	Date	Hosted by
1st MDC Meeting in Kuala Lumpur	28.10.2002	REHDA Malaysia
2nd MDC Meeting in Kuching	12.12.2003	Sarawak HDA
Pre-Council and 3rd MDC Meeting in Kota Kinabalu	16.07.2004 18.07.2004	SHAREDA
4th MDC Meeting in Penang	29.07.2005	REHDA Penang
5th MDC Meeting in Kuching	19.08.2006	SHEDA
6th MDC Meeting in Petaling Jaya	30.03.2007	REHDA Malaysia
7th MDC Meeting in Kota Kinabalu	25.08.2007	SHAREDA
8th MDC Meeting in Petaling Jaya	19.04.2008	REHDA Malaysia

Since its formation the Association has been recognised as representing the housing industry in Sabah and is being consulted by the relevant Authorities on many issues concerning the industry through dialogues and meetings to resolve and formulate policies or guidelines.

SHAREDA, in collaboration with the New Sabah Times, facilitated the launching of a weekly property column on 11.02.2002 to provide an avenue to members to feature their housing and development projects and also to provide write-up on matters related to the housing industry. More than 200 articles have been published so far.

The Editorial and Publication Committee of SHAREDA has published Bulletins and Circulars to disseminate information to members and interest group and encourage participation by members to contribute ideas and experience that can help enhance the Association's performance as well as that of the industry.

With the success achieved by SHAREDA so far and with the commitment demonstrated and co-operation offered by the members there is no doubt that the Association will progress further and continue to make meaningful contributions towards the growth of the economy.