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Estate agents will soon have to pass mandatory exam   Article Date :18 Jul 2006 Estate Agency Affairs Board to re-introduce mandatory real estate industry entry examination The real estate industry has given overwhelming support to this week’s announcement that the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) is to re-introduce a mandatory real estate industry entry examination, according to an article in the Sunday Tribune. The relaxing of the exam to voluntary status or automatic estate agent qualification after one year’s industry service in the early nineties has been attributed by industry leaders as the root cause of pockets of low professional standards and high number of malpractices. EAAB deputy manager Clive Ashpol in announcing the re-introduction of a compulsory entry standard at a Durban seminar this week, admitted the new regulation, by virtue of instilling greater practicing competence, would reduce the number of complaints against estate agents received by the board. These are currently running at 40 to 50 a day, but Ashpol stressed these were not all necessarily valid complaints. However, while the number of complaints received by the EAAB reflected a definite increase the total rand value of claims had dropped. The exam, which the EAAB is hoping to be re-introduced by the end of this year, but carries a deadline of October next year, will involve a six-month study course with greater relevance that the current voluntary exam. The new syllabus will focus on law, estate agency finance, estate agency practice and sales technique. The new structures also make provision for a compulsory principal’s examination and specialists’ qualifications such as sectional title agents. Kerry Warburg, chairperson of the local region of the Institute of Estate Agents and local real estate trainer Jill Corfield were two of the first to applaud its mandatory re-instatement. Corfield was hoping the EAAB would now emulate the US concept of compulsory annual training for estate agents. Ashpol also announced details of the Property Sector Transformation Charter aimed at ensuring rapid transformation within the real estate industry. The industry had been identified by the government as a sector lagging in change. The charter was similar to other charters and based on a scorecard system with points awarded to those agencies showing their commitment to broad based black economic empowerment (BBBEE). Commitment to the charter by agencies was not compulsory. Nomande Mapetla, CEO of the EAAB, made known that some 65 000 fidelity fund certificates had been issued to estate agents between November 30 last year and April 30 this year. More than 4 000 candidate agents had sat the EAAB examination in March and a further similar number had registered to sit the June exam later this month. CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE MAIN NEWS PAGE