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IEASA National
Institute Of Estate Agents Of South Africa - National |
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Appeal from IEASA to EAAB.
The fact that the real estate industry’s statutory body, the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), had ignored numerous and sometimes strident appeals to re-instate the compulsory entrance examination did not excuse them from looking at other areas of raising professional practising standards.
In fact an ideal place to flex their consumer protection muscle was through their immediate insistence that all incoming candidate estate agents sign an official EAAB document, conditional to their registration, declaring a minimum working knowledge of new and pending property legislation.
The suggestion was advanced by Bill Rawson, national president of the Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa (IEASA) during the Institute’s recent AGM in Cape Town. Rawson was reacting to this week’s news that the number of registered estate agents with the board had soared to new record levels of 64 000 estate agents. The number is about 22 000 higher than the 42 081 estate agents registered with the Board in July last year.
He believed registrations could soar as high as 75 000 or even 85 000 by year’s end, which was probably more than seven times the number of estate agents the industry could sustain in terms of providing a living income.
Based on the approximate 240 000 residential properties sold annually and Rawson’s assumption that a living wage for an active estate agent required an average of two sales a month the IEASA chief believes the industry is only able to sustain some 10 000 estate agents.
However, Rawson stresses the Institute is not overly concerned at the excessive over-trading or that professional standards or malpractice could suffer from the added numbers, preferring to believe the ability of estate agents to compete and greater consumer care in the selection of agents will smooth out the numbers. However, he does admit concern at the inevitability of the Estate Agency Affairs Board’s capacity to handle increased consumer complaints, which are a matter of course, even though they may not necessarily be justified.
Rawson says the board’s administrative ability to handle estate agent inquiries – the board controls the voluntary entry examination and estate agent annual registrations – has sunk dramatically in the past few years and he believed that agent’s dissatisfaction was also shared by consumers, many of whom had become disenchanted with the board’s service.
From an industry perspective the standard of the Board’s most basic services, that of answering telephone calls, issuing fidelity fund certificates and arranging the sitting of examinations for candidate agents had dropped alarmingly to a point of major concern.
Unfortunately, the plethora of new property related legislation downloaded on the industry represented a minefield of potential mishap for even the more professional and well-administered estate agent. It was therefore essential that the board impose some requirement on new estate agents of their understanding of property legislation.
Sadly, the irony of the situation was that even the voluntary, and, in his view the outdated current examination, made no provision for agents to have a working knowledge of legislation.
The Board has conceded that certain problems were currently being experienced in terms of its service levels. However, it added in a statement, this was largely attributable to the exponential increase in the number of registered estate agents referred to by Rawson.
It was fully mindful of the problems and would be implementing urgent steps to ameliorate the position.
In the interim, “the board earnestly prevails upon the forbearance and cooperation of its numerous stakeholders in this respect and can categorically assure them that communications with the Board will shortly become a more rewarding and less stressful experience. Despite these unanticipated constraints and difficulties the Board continues to fulfill its many and various core and peripheral functions to the full satisfaction of the vast majority of its constituents.”
Reacting to educational and training concerns, the board said in the same statement, that it is presently undertaking a comprehensive reassessment and redefinition of both its entire education and examination programme, and study syllabus, with the objective of ensuring that entry requirements remain consistently relevant and meaningful.
Clive Ashpol, EAAB spokesman said the body acknowledged it was essential that any proposed examination for estate agents should not only be academically acceptable but also constitute a proper and relevant test of the knowledge and acumen of candidates while still maintaining the highest standards of excellence.
“Appropriate factors to be taken into account in this respect would necessarily include the possibility of making an entry-level examination compulsory for all entrants to the industry while revisiting the examination format to ensure that it is not unidimensional but, rather, tests multiple dimensions of knowledge, insights, skills and disposition of candidates.
“This obviously entails a comprehensive re-examination of the proposed content of a revised entry-level examination for first time entrants allied with an investigation into the feasibility of creating and implementing a Continuous Professional Development programme for practicing estate agents. The Programme might possibly entail, say, a selection of micro-training modules, attendance at recommended conferences and workshops, elective courses, and other approved educational offerings.
Ashpol says a minimum number of credits would have to be earned annually by each registered estate agent to enable that estate agent to retain his/her fidelity fund certificate.
The Board is also investigating the creation of a matrix of relevant courses for estate agents covering the full body of practical knowledge within the estate agency field.
Ashpol says it is anticipated that, after completion of the entry-level requirement, an estate agent would then be able to diversify and to choose the specialised training of preference while simultaneously gaining Continuous Professional Development credits for the calendar year in question. “Should it be decided to retain the current candidate estate agent system essential monitoring and assessment criteria, such as the maintenance of an appropriate log-book by the candidate estate agent, or the setting of an exit test or examination, will have to be considered.”
The assistance and cooperation of the Services SETA, relevant education providers and industry representative organisations will be sought by the Board in the furtherance of this complex endeavour.
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