Thousands of housing agents get the axe

Real estate firms have axed thousands of housing agents ahead of enhanced regulations aimed at improving the professionalism of the industry.

Under a new regulatory framework to be implemented by the Ministry of National Development (MND), a statutory board known as the Council for Estate Agencies will be set up. MediaCorp understands that a Bill could be introduced in Parliament as early as October.

When contacted, MND would only say that a Bill will be introduced later this year, with the council operational by the end of the year. Under the new framework, all agents must register with the council before they are allowed to practice. In the meantime, MND had asked estate agencies to submit their agents' particulars and qualifications.

Some firms have taken the opportunity to do some housekeeping. Dennis Wee Group (DWG) updated the particulars of all its 5,000 agents earlier this month. They were also briefed on the new requirements.

DWG director Chris Koh said as a result of the exercise, some 1,500 agents were axed. They were mostly inactive or part-time agents.

"With the new central registry, where a member of public can turn to the registry and see if you are an agent, it's going to be difficult for those with a full-time job to moonlight as an agent."

Under the new guidelines, agents will also be required to pass a mandatory industry exam.

Only those with an industry certification will be exempted.

Rather than wait, DWG has asked all its agents to equip themselves - either with the Certified Estate Agent Course or the Common Examination for Salespersons.

Another real estate agency, PropNex, has also taken action.

Its CEO, Mohamed Ismail, said some 1,200 agents were terminated, either because they're inactive or unwilling to take up personal indemnity insurance. The insurance covers any financial liabilities arising from housing transactions.

Agents who are associated with moneylending have also been let go. "We have made it a policy that any PropNex agent, who has a moneylending licence, will not be allowed to practice because we do see a conflict of interest."

ERA, which has about 3,000 active agents, says it removes about 100 inactive agents from its database every month. Associate director of ERA Asia-Pacific, Mr Eugene Lim, said the company has also been training its agents for the Common Examination for Salespersons. To date, more than 2,500 ERA agents have taken the exam.

HSR, which represents about 7,000 agents, says it regularly checks its database for inactive agents, who are then put on a passive list and sent reminders to go for retraining.

There are an estimated 30,000 housing agents in Singapore.

- TODAY newspaper