bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

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.'

Sandy Chan Pui-shan, chief executive of the Estate Agents Authority, said a new code of practice would be issued soon to clarify the relationship between the developers and the agent during sales.

'The code of practice will require that information released by agents to the clients comes from the developers. This will ensure the information is accurate and consistent.'

Mrs Chan said a practice circular would also focus on the publication of sales figures, collection of so-called reservation fees from potential buyers, and the handling of buyers' identity cards.

Controversy was triggered last month when estate agents believed to be selling Sun Hung Kai's Park Island flats demanded buyers pay HK$50,000 before they could see price lists. The developer said it had not issued such an order. There were also complaints of a lack of sales brochures and price lists at Le Point developed by Cheung Kong (Holdings).

The Consumer Council said it was concerned about other sales tactics adopted by developers.

'It should be time for us to have a more comprehensive review of property sales procedures,' said council chief executive Pamela Chan Wong Shui.

The council was looking at how the industry's operation could be improved, even though it  did not have a concrete timetable, she said.

It would be ideal for developers to adopt open sales rules, requiring them  to announce a price list and the flats available seven days in advance.

Open sales of flats have almost been abandoned by developers since the government scrapped the cap on private sales at 15 per cent of units in a project  in 2002. Most sales of residential properties are now private ones.

The government source said it would be difficult to switch property sales regulations back to the old days. 'Developers would oppose  it very hard. There should be some basic fairness, and transparency should be maintained,  but we have to strike a balance between buyers and developers' interests.'



New property controls mulled