THE Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) is assessing whether property agents should be required to facilitate a minimum number of transactions in order to renew their licence.
This review was prompted by concerns that property agents who do not facilitate transactions regularly could pose a potential risk, which was highlighted during industry engagement sessions, CEA said on Dec 12.
“These agents may be less familiar with the evolving rules and regulations, property transaction processes, and market trends, which could inadvertently affect the accuracy of advice provided to clients,” the industry regulator said.
“CEA acknowledges these concerns and is committed to ensuring that consumers receive high quality service and professional advice from property agents.”
It added that it is engaging industry stakeholders to assess how to approach such a requirement and explore how it can be implemented effectively.
Property agents must complete the Real Estate Salesperson (RES) course and pass the RES exam before they can be registered with the CEA as salespeople. Their licences are renewed annually.
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From 2021 to 2023, an average of 40 per cent of property agents did not close at least one residential property transaction each year, CEA said.
But they noted that these agents could still be facilitating commercial or industrial property transactions, or are in leadership roles supervising other agents.
In the same period, an average of about 1,100 agents did not renew their registration each year.
“This reflects the dynamic nature of the industry, where professionals may exit due to career changes, personal reasons or retirement,” CEA added.
There were a total of 35,251 registered property agents at the start of 2024. This was up from 34,427 agents in 2023, and 32,414 in 2022. THE STRAITS TIMES
