New measures will be introduced to professionalise the estate agent market in the UK, driving up standards and bringing an end to ‘rogue managing agents’, announced UK Housing Secretary Sajid Javid on 8 April 2018.

According to UK government research, more than 6 out of 10 buyers and sellers have experienced stress and around a quarter of sellers said they would use a different estate agent if they were to go through the process again.

Estate agents in the UK will now be required to hold a professional qualification.

There is also a new drive to strengthen the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team so they can carry out more enforcement activity which includes banning agents.

UK Housing Secretary Sajid Javid said “Buying a home is one of the biggest and most important purchases someone will make in their life. But for far too long buyers and sellers have been trapped in a stressful system full of delays and uncertainty. So we’re going to put the consumers back in the driving seat. We will require estate agents to hold a qualification so that people are no longer at risk from a minority of ‘rogue agents’ and can trust the process when buying or selling their home.

Mark Hayward, Chief Executive of the UK National Association of Estate Agents said “We welcome the commitment to further regulation. We have long argued that estate agents should be recognised as professionals, this is an important step towards achieving this and we look forward to working with the government. There are approximately 20,000 estate agent businesses across the country, and currently, anyone can practice as an estate agent. The changes set out will professionalise the sector, creating a more trustworthy and reliable industry who will be better held to account.”

We would welcome Gibraltar mirroring these changes. The Estate Agents Code of Conduct was issued in accordance with the provisions of Section 91(3) of the Fair Trading Act. Chestertons was a strong supporter of this Code at the time. However, the impact has been disappointing in our view and the industry has not changed much. This is largely because the code is only designed to be best practice guidance to estate agents who are required to hold a class B (xi) Business Licence. And the granting of a licence does not require any particular professional or experience standards. Hence the code sets the standards expected to be followed by the industry locally, but there is insufficient remit to actively police or enforce it.

Shortly we expect new guidelines on estate agents enforcing anti-money laundering rules.

We would welcome adherence to further regulations in Gibraltar, which it appears the UK will adopt, as long as there is the desire, remit and resource for our regulator to enforce the regulations on a level playing field. All of which would benefit the consumer and ‘Gibraltar PLC’, as the industry moves up a gear in its professionalism.

Eight of our staff hold a Diploma in Estate Agency, and we have a chartered accountant, justice of the peace and a commissioner for oaths in the mix as well.