Two real estate groups join hands to develop profession

TWO of the biggest real estate industry groups here - the Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies (SAEA) and Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV) - will collaborate on professional development initiatives.

SAEA and SISV unveiled an enhanced accreditation programme yesterday under which they will co-organise courses and other programmes. Among other things, these will provide a pathway for SAEA members to attain some form of SISV membership.

SAEA and SISV also hope to develop the leadership competencies of estate agency bosses and improve the ability of agents to compete internationally.

And in line with the government's move to regulate the estate agency industry, SAEA will now use SISV's dispute resolution mechanism, the SISV Mediation Centre.

The centre, set up in 1997, aims to provide dispute resolution services for agencies that do not have an in-house mechanism to handle consumer complaints. This is expected to be useful for smaller agencies that may not have the manpower needed to set up a dedicated internal dispute resolution process.

The centre will also offer mediation services in disputes between agencies and between agents - an area not addressed under the new regime.

'We believe that through this affiliation framework, SISV and SAEA will elevate industry practice standards by a few notches with the ultimate aim of serving the public better,' said Reymond Fernandez, chairman of SISV's real estate committee. 'Maintaining high standards of professionalism will continue to rank top on the list of our priorities for a dynamic real estate landscape in Singapore.'

The collaboration between SISV and SAEA has already resulted in an inaugural global real estate specialist programme, launched last week. This aims to give agents an understanding of real estate fundamentals from a global standpoint to help them take advantage of rising international real estate investment by conglomerates and high net worth individuals. The programme will be conducted once a quarter.

SAEA represents about 400 agencies and close to 9,000 agents in Singapore, while SISV has more than 1,300 individual members.

Source: Business Times, 21 May 2010