Customer ratings and transactions of property agents to be made public
The Real Estate Industry Transformation Map aims to improve transparency and accountability in the property sector.
In a bid to improve transparency and accountability in the property sector, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) will work with agencies to publish customer ratings of real estate agents, revealed Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee in unveiling the latest roadmap for the real estate industry.
Property deals closed by agents will also be made available for viewing by home buyers and sellers, starting with public housing transactions by end-2018 and private residential transactions by end-2019.
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The CEA-led workgroup will also work towards making it easier for companies to access property-related data, so that they could automate administrative processes in property transactions, reported Channel NewsAsia.
Lee said data from Singapore Land Authority, the Ministry of Manpower and Housing and Development Board will be progressively made available later in the year.
“If we do this right, we can minimise the use of hardcopy documents such as cheques and cashier’s orders, all of which are time-consuming to process.”
He noted that the facilities management and property transaction services sectors have been identified in the industry transformation map (ITM) as having “immense potential for transformation”, especially in the areas of workforce upskilling and adoption of technology.
Meanwhile, property agency ERA Realty Network has expressed its support for the ITM.
“ERA has been in the real estate agency business for 36 years. As one of the largest agencies with significant market share, we are fully supportive of the Real Estate Industry Transformation Map (REITM). We look forward to work with the authorities and various stakeholders to move our industry forward together,” it said.
Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin explained that the ITM’s objective is to improve the efficiency of property transactions and not replace jobs, reported the Business Times.
“We don’t set out to take away jobs; that’s not the objective,” he said during a panel discussion at the 2018 ERA Asia Pacific Business Conference, which was attended by over 2,000 agents and brokers from across the region.
And while agents may consider the government “heartless” for this move, the end-goal of the ITM is to improve the quality of life for all Singaporeans by making property transactions pain-free, he added.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
