Cape Town - A new property bill that repeals archaic legislation and promises greater transformation, is one step closer to becoming law, but experts say there are no provisions for disadvantaged black estate agents and practitioners, many who can't afford to pay expensive fees.
The Property Practitioners Bill, tabled by Human Settlements Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo in the National Assembly this month, aims to improve the transformation, efficiency, alignment and professionalism of the property sector.
The bill aligns the legislative environment with the country's Constitutional and democratic dispensation geared to address historical imbalances in the property market as created by the legacy of apartheid.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said the bill establishes the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (a successor of the Estate Agency Affairs Board) to increase access and opportunities for the participation of black people.
This will be done through the establishment of a Transformation Fund to serve as a vehicle to facilitate transformation in the sector, Mthembu said.
“The adoption of this bill is vital in the revitalisation and transformation of the property sector. This piece of legislation will stimulate job creation, empower designated groups and address the imbalances in the sector to benefit society as a whole,” he added.
Transformation might be the core of the bill, but the Black Property Practitioners Association (BPPA) said there were no provisions in it for poor black practitioners, who could not afford to pay the expensive fees.
“They often got blueprints of information without being engaged in decision-making, and instead always got instructions from white people in authority.”
The National Property Forum said that almost 99% of black estate agents did not use their trust accounts, yet the bill proposed no differentiation between those who did or did not.
“Exorbitant auditing fees were a barrier to entry, and it proposed the bill put a limit on fees and or exempted businesses making less than R1.5 million in annual gross commission turnover from having trust accounts,” the forum said.
The department amended the legislation to allow the Property Sector Transformation Fund to develop special dispensation for the training and development of the historically disadvantaged, which must include recognition of prior learning.
The Mortgage Origination Council of South Africa said that if the bill were to be enacted as proposed, it would “create a somewhat round peg in a square hole” by giving rise to dual regulation.
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