Real estate industry regulation moved a step closer to reality recently, when the Real Estate Agents, Property Brokers and Property Consultants Act 2019 reached its final consultation phase.
“The regulation of Malta’s real estate sector is a crucial step forward for the industry, and Parliamentary Secretary Chris Agius has been unwavering in his pursuit of excellence in this area,” says RE/MAX Malta Chairman Kevin Buttigieg. “It is something we at RE/MAX have championed in since the very start of our operation. We firmly believe that real estate customers should not be allowed to have a negative experience of buying property simply because some agents choose to act like cowboys.”
The Act has been designed to establish a regulatory framework requiring real estate agents, branch managers, property consultants, and property brokers to be licensed. It is hoped that it will inspire a sense of greater responsibility among those working as intermediaries between property buyers and sellers. Now that it has reached its final phase of development, the government will finalise all elements of its consultation process and reissue the final Act to Parliament for approval.
“According to a recent survey, over 40 per cent of people asked expressed their concern about the service they had received from a real estate agent, and we consider this unacceptable. In many countries, real estate is considered to be an essential service because it offers so much important value to the community,” says Jeff Buttigieg, RE/MAX Malta COO, who also discussed the Act with Mr Agius on a recent episode of the Real Estate Conversation. “We have always taken our responsibility as estate agents seriously, and RE/MAX Malta was the very first company to offer real estate-related training courses.”
As a result, the company has already started to adapt the required structure to MQF level standards when planning its courses, thus ensuring that its training is up-to-date and exceeds requirements when the Act is finalised. Beyond that, it is already looking at offering future Licence Training internally and is gearing up to launch.
“Once the Act is in place so-called ‘cowboys’ will have no choice but to shape up or ship out. There is room for them to pull up their socks and abide by the licence, but there is no longer room for them to take advantage of people and damage the reputation of the whole sector. Of course this doesn’t mean that the sector will be completely transformed overnight but it does mean we are on the right track.
“At RE/MAX Malta we are certainly proud to be one of the companies driving this positive change and are eager to see the long-term results of this investment to make our sector the best that it can be,” Mr Kevin Buttigieg concludes.
RE/MAX Malta has made many of its high-level training courses available to the public, giving them the opportunity to learn new skills that will help them improve their career during the COVID-19 crisis. It may be access for free, here.
