Last year, more than 18,700 new home transactions were recorded, and a six-year high after the implementation of the first-hand new law in 2013
According to the latest statistics from the Real Estate Agency’s Supervision Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Land Supervision Bureau), 47 cases were recorded in 2018, increasing to 63 cases in 2019, an increase of 34% year-on-year. In addition, the Bureau received 299 complaints last year, a slight decrease of 2% year-on-year, of which 56 were illegal advertisements, an increase of 36 or 1.8 times year-on-year.
The Chairman of the Regional Supervision Bureau, Liang Yongxiang, said that the complaints involving first-hand properties were mainly based on providing inaccurate information and not obtaining developer approval to issue advertisements, and the Bureau has now processed about 76% of them, or 48 cases. He went on to point out that, in view of the sales order of first-hand buildings, the Bureau of Local Supervision inspected the sales office 875 times last year, and believed that the order had improved significantly, and the bureau would continue to carry out industry education.
As for the overall complaint, Liang revealed that the main complaints received last year included improper handling of temporary sale and purchase contracts, failure to enter into or interpret real estate agency agreements with customers, and providing inaccurate or misleading property information.
In addition, the Local Supervision and Administration Bureau took action or punished 258 licensees last year, revoked 55 licenses and suspended 18 licenses; 116 and 147 licensees were fined or disciplined, respectively.
875 inspections at new sales offices throughout the year
In addition, in recent years, Hong Kong people are enthusiastic about investing in overseas properties. Han Wanping, the chief executive officer of the Geological Supervision Bureau, pointed out that only six complaints about overseas properties were received last year, a year-on-year decrease of 60%. The overseas properties involved in the complaints were distributed in the United Kingdom, Thailand, Malaysia and the Mainland of China. Mainly involves unlicensed real estate agency work.
6 overseas property complaints, a decrease of 60%
At the same time, the number of applicants for the real estate agent qualification examination and the salesperson qualification examination last year were 5,146 and 5782, respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 2.7% and 12%. In addition, the Local Supervision Bureau plans to provide qualified individual license holders with a one-off grant of over 500 yuan. Liang Yongxiang said that this is not a solution to the difficulties, but to provide industry professionals with financial assistance to improve their professionalism.