Lawmakers plea for control of real estate commissions

The draft real estate law should clearly dictate ceilings of commissions charged by real estate agents, members of the first standing committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) urged yesterday in a closed door meeting with government officials.
Kwan Tsui Hang, the president of the committee, said there are no rules establishing ceilings on the commissions that residents have to pay to real estate agents when searching for an apartment. However, she added, the government does not share the lawmakers’ opinion.
“The government reaffirmed that that [commissions] should be regulated by the market,” Kwan said.
“There are different opinions on the table, but the Government doesn’t think it’s appropriate to intervene in the market. We will listen to society’s opinions and study the possibility [of setting up some restrictions],” she added.
According to Kwan, lawmakers are proposing the measure in order to better safeguard consumer rights, which is also the main goal of the proposed bill. Overall, the draft law seeks to improve real estate agent’s professional skills by introducing new professional and education requirements, as well as penalties.
Both parties agreed yesterday that penalties should be included in the law, instead of being established with a by-law, as the government initially proposed. In addition, instructions that were to be put in place by the Housing Bureau will now be set by the Chief Executive, which must be published in the Official Gazette.
The government and AL’s legal advisors will continue to discuss some technical changes, and the committee will meet again at the end of the month.
The draft-law also establishes that non-residents will be permitted to operate as real estate agents in Macau as long as they hold a valid professional licence. The provision was heavily criticised by local real estate associations last week, and Kwan yesterday tried to make clear that this was not a suggestion from the legislators.
“The Government has analysed the experience of other regional and neighbouring cities and they also allow non-residents to operate as real estate agents.”
“The committee was told that now that we have been talking about regional cooperation and we have inked the Macau/Guangdong agreement, Macau also needs to introduce this measure,” Kwan explained.
However, she said that she “personally understands the concerns of the real estate industry associations” and vowed to “ask the Government if it is really necessary to import these professionals”.