Regulation of estate agents

A new body has been set up to regulate estate agents. This body has the goal of enforcing standards of service.

This body should have another role, that is, to ensure that consumers are paying a fair fee for property transactions and that the fees charged by the agencies are advertised. This will allow consumers to get access to the efficent agencies that charge lower fees.

The fees for making property transactions are too high in Singapore. An estate agent can make one transaction a month and earn more than a regular job. This is why this industry attracts so many people, including professionals trained in other fields, to handle the property transactions. It is a waste of resources for the economy.

Some people pointed out that fees are higher in other countries. But, unlike Singapore, these countries are big and have properties located in sparsely populated areas. .

Singapore does not need so many property agents, especially those who are qualified in other fields. The first step to stop this wasteful use of resources and to bring the cost down, is to regulate the fee for property transactions (especially for sale and rental of HDB flats) to half of the current level, or to make it easy for the consumers to handle these transactions directly without going through an agent.

Tan Kin Lian