"No door" for real estate brokers to operate freely

According to the amended Law on Real Estate Business recently passed by the National Assembly on November 28, regarding the conditions for organizations and individuals doing real estate brokerage services (Article 61), organizations and individuals doing real estate brokerage services must establish a real estate service business according to regulations and must meet the following conditions:

There must be regulations for real estate brokerage services; there must be material and technical facilities that meet the operational requirements as prescribed by the Government ; there must be at least one individual with a real estate brokerage certificate.

In addition, before conducting real estate brokerage business, real estate brokerage business enterprises shall send information about the enterprise to the State management agency for real estate business at the provincial level where the enterprise is established to be posted on the housing and real estate market information system according to the provisions of this Law.

Hết cửa cho môi giới bất động sản hoạt động tự do - 1 — Individuals practicing as brokers must meet specific conditions (Illustration: Tran Khang).

Notably, Article 61 of this Law also stipulates that individuals practicing real estate brokerage must have a real estate brokerage practice certificate; must practice in a real estate trading floor service business or a real estate brokerage service business.

Also related to real estate brokerage, Article 62 of the amended Law on Real Estate Business stipulates that brokers seek partners who meet the customer's conditions to participate in negotiations and sign contracts.

Real estate brokers are authorized representatives to carry out tasks related to procedures for buying, selling, transferring, leasing, subleasing, and leasing-purchasing real estate.

At the same time, real estate brokers provide information and support to the parties in negotiating and signing contracts for the purchase, sale, transfer, lease, sublease, and lease-purchase of real estate.

In fact, for the real estate market to operate safely and transparently, the role of real estate brokers is increasingly appreciated with strict requirements. Besides the brokers who are both dedicated and experienced, a large number of greedy real estate brokers take advantage of the opportunity to deceive customers.

According to statistics from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), there are currently about 200,000 people working as real estate brokers. However, only 40,000 people have real estate broker certificates and have undergone professional training.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Chairman of VARS - said that normally, when the real estate market is "hot", workers from other professions join the brokerage market with a very fast growth rate, from motorbike taxi drivers, water sellers to state officials... can all participate in connecting to make transactions.

In fact, according to Mr. Dinh, these are not real estate brokers. These individuals are not trained, do not have professional knowledge, operate spontaneously, and are not subject to professional management by any agency.

"They only care about how to make the transaction happen as quickly as possible, taking advantage of the opportunity to "inflate" real estate prices for profit, hoarding goods, defrauding customers... causing market disruption," Mr. Dinh said.

Therefore, to protect the rights of investors or home buyers when participating in transactions, the Chairman of VARS recommends that there should be a legal mechanism binding the role and responsibility of real estate brokers in consulting and providing information. All those who practice brokerage consulting for customers must properly and fully complete the regulations before operating, including a brokerage practice certificate.

Source