OFT says no new regulations required
18/02/2010 - Estate agents will still not need qualifications
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According the Office of Fair Trading, there is no need to introduce any regulations for estate agents or a need to pass any exam before beginning trading. The long awaited investigation into the whole business of buying and selling property concluded that the rules on new entrants in to the market should be relaxed, it suggests that there should be less regulations that would allow new online portals to enter the UK market and thus eliminate the almost monopoly that estate agents currently enjoy.
They hoped that the move would mean that costs would reduce dramatically. This comes just in time for Google who are said to be almost ready to introduce their online property portal later this year. The OFT pointed out that the current legislation, dating back to 1979, is hindering new business models that would specifically introduce private sellers to each other.
The report says that there are not enough reasons to increase the need for tighter regulations even though it was found that one in four estate agents do not follow any of the current rules favoured by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). The chief executive of the NAEA, Peter Bolton King said “Once again, the OFT has categorically failed to see that better regulation of the home buying and selling market is required”. He went on to say “The NAEA would like to see a greater level of regulation to ensure that professional, qualified estate agents are not confused with agents that, all too often, fail to meet the basic professional standards we would expect from our members”.
