Business | Property
Realty agents under lens
People shopping for property in Dubai may breathe a little easier once a new programme, aimed at weeding out unqualified real estate agents, goes into effect tomorrow.
- By Scott Shuey, Chief Business Reporter
- Published: 00:00 January 21, 2007
- The Dubai Land Department is taking a closer look at the qualifications of real estate agents and firms operating in the red-hot property market.
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
Dubai: People shopping for property in Dubai may breathe a little easier once a new programme, aimed at weeding out unqualified real estate agents, goes into effect tomorrow.
The Dubai Land Department is taking a closer look at the qualifications of real estate agents and firms operating in the red-hot property market.
"The system will try to weed out unqualified and unscrupulous agents from the market place," said Mohammad Sultan Thani, director of Development and Marketing Administration for the Land Department. "Right now, there are a lot of people, such as housewives or people who just need jobs, who are trying to go out there and broker deals."
The department will begin by registering real estate firms and, in the second phase, will issue cards to registered brokers within those firms.
While a timeline was unavailable, the Land Department said that eventually only brokers who are licenced by them would be allowed to transact real estate deals.
Thani said untrained and inexperienced brokers may cause problems for Dubai's booming real estate market.
The registrations process - which involves the screening of individual agents for such things as "good conduct" - will help remove "rogue" agents from the market place, according to Stephane Richet, head of sales for Sherwoods, a Dubai-based independent property consultancy.
Richet said he has encountered several cases of questionable behaviour, mainly in the resale market.
According to Thani, a training programme will be put into place to keep agents qualified, and an advertising campaign will warn consumers that they should not deal with unlicensed agents. Thani said the campaign would start when more agencies had completed the registration process.
Although the Department said that initially it would not be difficult to register a company, since the only major hurdle would be receiving a trade licence from the Ministry of Economy, the Department is planning to issue a code of ethics for brokers.
"It's not just registering. It's going to be every year. If we're getting a lot of complaints, we not going to renew them," Thani said.
Lisa Mahoney, CEO of local real estate firm Better Homes, said while the new initiative was an important first step, she was still concerned that unscrupulous firms would be able to hire unqualified agents to conduct land deals.
"The Land Department is doing a good job of being aware. They want to bring some quality people into the market and make sure it's not just people without any qualifications running around making obscene amounts of money," she said.
"At the end of the day, it doesn't prevent fraud. They're just checking the companies. It doesn't ensure the agents are qualified."
Tomorrow, the Land Department will hold a ceremony for the first 30 real estate firms to be certified under the programme.
Have your say
Have you ever dealt with a land broker you felt was unqualified? Do you feel a broker took advantage of you or was unscrupulous? Share you experience with us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com or send us your comments below.
Your comments
Excellent. Finally people can trust better qualified agents. I strongly believe that there should be a registration process and fees to be paid for annual retention for the membership of estate agents. This will ensure regular monitoring and improve the quality of agents.
Dr Elias
London,UK
It's about time!
D. Ghattas
Toronto,Canada
This is very good news. As a non-resident investing in the Dubai property market, it has always been worrying whether you are dealing with a genuine agent. This will be reassuring for the future.
Y Patel
Walsall,UK
I think this is a positive step in the regularities of the real estate market in Dubai. My experience with such brokers are more than this column will allow, so I will not be sharing it. On the other hand, I would like to thank all he people responsible for making this rule/restrictions come into action.
Ahmad
Dubai,UAE
This is a good step to stop unscrupulous real estate brokers from victimising innocent people.
J.T. Donato
Dubai,UAE
Good move. If properly implemented, it will provide a boost to the good companies and improve the services for customers. But what are the criteria? Or is it just another way for the Land Department to make some extra money on licence fees and certification?
J. Bee
Dubai,UAE
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