Authorities want to legalise developers' guidelines and regulate agents' behaviour
The government is considering making new guidelines issued by the Real Estate Developers' Association legally enforceable, placing more controls on residential property sales.
A senior government source said the authorities would like the guidelines, announced two weeks ago, to form part of the consent scheme. This means they could suspend the sale of a project by withdrawing the consent scheme if a developer breached regulations. Under the new guidelines, developers must put up at least 20 units or 20 per cent of the first batch of flats in a new project for initial sale.
The new guidelines were issued by the association (Reda) after a meeting with the Consumer Council and the Estate Agents Authority on August 25.
Vendors must also have a price list ready 24 hours before a sale, and for subsequent sales a list has to be published immediately after a sale is announced.
The source said the latest idea was floated when officials, the Consumer Council and the association met last month, but was opposed by developers who stressed self-discipline was enough to deal with the situation.
'Since the Reda issued these guidelines, I cannot see why they cannot accept putting this as part of the consent scheme,' the source said. 'We are working on the issue of property sales tactics from two directions. Apart from making guidelines legally enforceable, we want to regulate agents' behaviour in the property sales venue.'