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The estate agents' watchdog has announced a new set of rules to cover sales of new flats to protect prospective buyers against unscrupulous sales tactics. 
'The aim is to ensure that the sale of first-hand properties is in order and more transparent, hence to make sure that prospective buyers are well protected,' Rosanna Ure Lui Hang-sai,  chief executive of the Estate Agents Authority, said. 
The rules, issued in circulars, contain guidelines for agents' conduct when selling new flats. 
The authority had issued circulars before but many of the guidelines have been rewritten.
They outline what information agents should give to buyers and what agents should not do to avoid creating a nuisance to the public.
Estate agents are required to inform prospective buyers in writing about whether their company acts for the developer, buyer or both. They are also prohibited from offering loans or proposing to offer loans to prospective buyers. 
Agents are not allowed to use their clients' identity cards and credit cards to pay deposits unless they get the buyers' written consent. They should not collect a deposit from a prospective buyer without the developer's authorisation.
The new rules follow a recent investigation of 14 agents from two companies, who allegedly accepted cheques as deposits from prospective buyers of the luxury residential project Larvotto  without the developers' consent, as well as distributing inaccurate floor plans of the new development. 
The guidelines also come after the government announced nine measures last month aimed at making developers increase transparency during flat sales. 
Anthony Wong Wai-fung,  the authority's director of operations, said real estate firms would comply with the new regulations. He was speaking after meeting representatives of five big estate agencies, which employ about 30 per cent of the city's 28,000 agents. 
Wong said the authority would organise courses to brief agents on the new directives. Developers would also receive a copy of the guidelines. 
Jeffrey Ng Chong-yip,  a director at Midland Realty, worried that the new guidelines would be too rigid and lack flexibility, as they did not know the full details yet. 
Ng said some rules - such as requiring agency companies to provide a controller to oversee staff assigned to a first-sale site and providing a staff list to the authority at least a day before the launch of a sales project - would increase administrative costs and work for real estate firms. 
But he agreed that the rules would help to improve sales of new flats.
New obligations
Practitioners must inform prospective buyers in writing if their agency acts for the developer, purchaser or both 
They must not accept or solicit any money, whether described as a deposit or not, from prospective buyers without the developer's authorisation 
They should not arrange for payment of deposits using the credit cards of prospective buyers without their written consent 
They must not offer loans or propose to offer loans to prospective buyers 
They should remind prospective buyers to pay attention to the actual dimensions of the flats as stated in the sales brochure and not to rely only on their perception of the size of the flats gathered from viewing show flats 
They must not assure prospective buyers that they will successfully obtain a mortgage loan 
They must not intercept vehicles or distract drivers by standing on the carriageway 
Each estate agency company must assign a controller to oversee all company staff deployed to a first-sale site 
Estate agency companies must provide the EAA with a copy of the staff list to be deployed to a first-sale site at least one day before the sales launch




Watchdog revises rules for sales of new flats