Hong Kong property agents bailing up potential clients with heavy-handed sales tactics, such as blocking or chasing their cars, have been warned that regulations may be tightened if it continues.
The Estate Agents Authority said it would not tolerate swarms of brochure-waving agents descending on potential buyers on streets outside new residential developments and that it had already issued hundreds of verbal warnings.
'It is not the way to run [the business],' said the authority's chairman, Steven Poon Kwok-lin.
'If the situation gets worse, the authority may seek to amend existing regulations' to ensure that flat sales were conducted properly, Mr Poon said.
Police and the Consumer Council have also expressed concern about the rising number of complaints of agent harassment outside sales offices for flats.
Cut-throat competition for buyers sparked chaos at the recent opening of The Merton in Kennedy Town. From January 7 to 16, the authority issued 378 warnings to agents at the upmarket complex.