IEASA National - News

Registration fees now increased for estate agents   Article Date :1 Apr 2006 EAAB Fees increase Estate agents now have to pay hundreds of rands more to register or to renew their registrations with the Estate Agency Affairs Board in order to stay in business. Bill Rawson, national president of the Institute of Estate Agents, says that the the Minister of Trade and Industry has approved and gazetted increases in the fees payable for fidelity fund certificates, with immediate effect. They are the first increases in registration fees since 2002. "The increases are pretty steep," says Rawson. "An estate agent entering the industry now has to pay R529 for a fidelity fund certificate instead of R212, and an agent renewing his or her registration must pay R364.80 instead of R122. A first-time principal's certificate now costs R1 270 instead of R487, and his or her renewal fee increases from R212 to R855." Rawson says that over the past few years, the Board had asked for several smaller annual increases, none of which were approved. "Had the fees been increased by around 20% each year, as the Board apparently wanted, then they would now have reached these levels anyway. What has now been handed to us is four or five years' worth of increases, all at once. "However, pushing up the cost of entering and staying in the industry may help to bring the industry back to a more normal size. The industry is far too over-populated, and we do not believe that the country needs or can accommodate 72 000 estate agents. "We also hope that, as its revenue increases, the Board's services will improve. Service levels have been exceptionally poor over the past year or so, and while we appreciate that the Board is grappling with unprecedented problems, the industry needs better service. We understand that, as a result of the resignations and dismissals following last year's corruption scandal, the actual board is currently made up of three interim members, pending the appointment of a new board." CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE MAIN NEWS PAGE