Newly sworn in Minister for National Development Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, former Health Minister who has replaced Mr. Mah Bow Tan has pledged in his final outgoing blog post as a Health Minister to make housing and HDB Singaporeans popular icon again.

I am only driven by one thought: housing is one of the greatest achievements of Singapore, and our pride. It is very sad to see it being hammered left, right and centre in the lead up to and during GE.

I am determined to make housing and HDB Singaporeans’ popular icon again.

Please help me, my friends.

It is going to be interesting to see what kind of policies will Mr. Khaw introduce since HDB forms up 80% of heartlander’s stay. It’s quite safe to say that any new changes that is going to be introduced into the system will be tough to adjust the current prices. Mr. Mah Bow Tan has tried increasing the supplies of flats, introduced harsher seller’s stamp duty rates during his course, but the median Cash Over Valuation (COV) hasn’t seem to revise downwards too much.

Of course supplies that has been introduced will take time on the system on the price action since they’re just in the pipes which hasn’t been built yet. Any changes done now will fiscally alter the prices once the supplies are in the market.

Also, should the policies be too drastic, foreign investors would probably slow or halt their investment portfolio in Singapore. If Mr. Khaw could just tilt his policies more to adjust the public housing woes for the mid-tier families instead of affecting the free market on private housing, it would be perfect.

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The verdict is finalized with actions taken by Singapore Government. Ministry of National Development will take the reigns over from Inland Revenue of Singapore to create a Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) as the licensing authority for real estate agents.

MND will introduce a Bill in Parliament in the second half of this year to set up the new Council and to establish the new regulatory framework.

I’ll just highlight the most important point which most fellow agents are keen to know,

Arrangements will be made to help existing estate agencies and agents transit to the new licensing and registration framework. For instance, they will be exempted from the new educational qualification criterion.

Those who have passed an industry examination will not be required to take a new examination.

Those who have not passed any existing industry examination will be given one year to pass the examination, and be given a provisional registration in the interim.

Existing agents who are undischarged bankrupts or have past criminal records will be considered for registration on a case-by-case basis.

So you’ll definitely need to sit in for either CES or CEHA before practicing. To read the article in details, check out AsiaOne.

Related posts:

1. Jan 2008 CEHA Results Out
2. CEHA, The 2008 Round Starts
3. SISV CEHA Course – April 2008 Intake
4. SISV CEHA Courses Opens in April 2009
5. A Helping Hand to 2008 July CEHA Intake

I think this is unevitable, especially with many criticisms and suggestions coming from the public in the recent months after the case of two unethical agents flipping their marketing unit without taking care of the principle’s interest.

Whenever discussions and complains come directly at the press especially ST Forums, the statutory boards will be acting quickly on them, which is a good thing. Recently MND Minister Mah Bow Tan and Senior Minister of State for Finance Lim Hwee Hua has mentioned to Parliament on the review of unscrupulous agents.

Now what will the government come out with to regulate Realtors? Will they work closely with SAEA or IEA? Will CEHA be compulsory?

Before they really come out with something firm, I’d wish they have a talk with most major agencies on what should be enforced to still encourage room for the growth and healthy competition for the real estate market in Singapore.

Times are changing, and with regulatories stepping up to clean up the industry, only creame of the crop will be standing and giving their best to the customers they serve.

Rest assure things will happen really soon for Realtors in Singapore. A good thing isn’t it?

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