Property broker's lament

Posted by goldenpeace on 14-February-2009
‘It is no joy to be associated with this negative image.’
MR COLIN CHOO: ‘I agree with the proposal in last Saturday’s editorial, ‘Urgent: Laws to tighten property brokerage trade’, to license individual estate agents, in addition to property agencies. This is consistent with the practice of other professions, including cab drivers and hawkers. Anyone who has a licence at stake is likely to think twice before resorting to unethical practices. Self-policing by agencies is uneven and unreliable. Given the disparate sizes of the agencies, it is hard to monitor thousands of agents in large firms. An agent dismissed by one agency for unethical practice can easily switch to another and continue brokering. There is no carrot or stick for agencies to regulate the conduct of their agents either, as the agents are not under their direct employment. As a long-time estate agent, I have seen enough blatantly unethical behaviour among agents and it is no joy to be associated with this negative image.’
Source : Straits Times - 14 Feb 2009