Safeguarding Our Homes as Our Assets
To many, our HDB flats are not just a home. They are our valued assets, sometimes our largest single investment. To safeguard consumer interests and raise the professionalism of the real estate agency industry, the Council of Estate Agencies (CEA) was formed on 22 October 2010.
With CEA’s formation and the enactment of the Estate Agents Act, estate agents must now be licensed and real estate salespersons must be registered with the CEA to engage in real estate agency work.
As of 1 January 2015, consumers had a wide pool of more than 30,000 registered salespersons and over 1,300 licensed estate agents for choice.
In the past five years, CEA has implemented various regulations and initiatives to develop the real estate agency industry. As salespersons become more professional and have good knowledge of estate agency work, the number of consumer complaints has dropped by about 30%.
Useful tips
Some useful tips to remember when you engage a real estate salesperson!
Your salesperson will safeguard your interest in a property transaction:
- Offers you professional advice
- Represents you in negotiation, promptly updating you on offers and proposals
- Assists you to enter into a binding agreement and explains all relevant forms
- Seeks prior consent before advertising your property
- Declares any conflicts of interest and all external sources of income/referral fees to you
For HDB property transactions:
- Advises you on eligibility to buy, sell or lease
- Explains and goes through the Resale Checklist with you, checking whether renovations are authorised
- Assists you in submitting forms, documents and/or information required by HDB to process transaction
For a smooth property transaction, consumers need to do your part when engaging real estate salespersons:
- Check the CEA Public Register to confirm the identity of your salesperson
- Negotiate the commission payable
- Use the prescribed estate agency agreement
- Provide accurate information to your salesperson
- Understand all documents before signing
- Do not hand transaction monies to your salesperson