The Singapore government has proposed new initiatives to control property agents in the country. Such means include enforcing the rules more keenly and monitoring their activities more closely. A new government agency will be created to employ the improved regulatory powers.
This new accreditation body for real estate agents will be designed to maintain and organise a public central registry that will record all qualified agents. This will allow consumers to make certain that the agents they are engaging with are accredited.
Also, the Ministry of National Development (MND) is trying to ascertain the capability of industry players to cooperate with the government to establish a self-governing tribunal that will deal with the disputes in real estates.
”Such a set-up would send a strong signal on the industry’s commitment to enhance fair dealing and raise professional standards,” the ministry said.
The Ministry also proposes that every agent must have a contract with an accredited agency. The MND also emphasises that representing two or more agencies must be prevented.
An industry examination must also be passed by the agents and prior to their practise, the accreditation body must accredit them first.
In a statement made yesterday by the MND, "The new regulatory framework seeks to achieve two objectives: one, to enable consumers to better safeguard their interests through public education and robust regulations, and two, to increase the professionalism of the real estate industry.”
Last year, there were 1,100 complaints about real estate received by the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), 991 complaints in 2006, and 1,055 complaints in 2007. In 2009, Case noted around 727 complaints between the months of January and September.
In March 2009, Mah Bow Tan, National Development Minister, commented in that the whole system was unsatisfactory and that the status quo was unreasonable.
As such, the Ministry and other concerned agencies are on the process of finding ways to reinforce the regulatory framework for the last few months. Some of the stakeholders that have been consulted include the directors of real estate agencies, industry associations, Case, individual agents and the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas).
Property firms are required in the proposed framework to take a bigger responsibility for the actions of their agents. In the event of a clash, agencies must set up a process to effectively handle the complaints. This would include a mediation policy at the agency level. The accreditation body will be working with the regulatory authority to institute a punitive framework to do something about the infringement or non-compliance of the accreditation prerequisite.
Those agencies that are not capable of regulating their agents will also be subjected to disciplinary measures like limiting their recruitment of more agents.
According to industry players, such a framework can help bring in better standards of practise to a self-regulated industry. ”I think the impact will be towards greater professionalism and more protection for the consumer,” stated Mohamed Ismail, chief executive officer of PropNex.