Land Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney has today assured the Property agents that the government will support them in order to streamline the sector as well benefit their clients.
In a statement read on her behalf by Cabinet Administrative Secretary Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning (CAS) Gideon Mun’garo today in Nairobi, She recalled that the Act regularizing the operations of the Property Agents was enacted in 1994 and since then there has been enormous advancement in technology and thus the bill currently at the Attorney General’s Office should reflect the aspirations of all stakeholders.
“Real estate was the second largest contributor to the growth of our economy according to a survey done in 2017 with an increase from 10.6% to 12% in the year” she said.
She also said that 8.5 billion worth of buildings construction were approved in Nairobi alone citing the high potential of the real estate and property agent sector growth.
“The president’s big four agenda is an advantage to the sector as it means increased business in the sector” she added.
Citing the number of registered property Agents which stands at around 700, she also challenged the Estate Agents Registration Board (EARB) to update their records and use modern technology to weed out a big number of quacks that are freezing potential and current property owners of colossal amounts of money and eventually not paying taxes to the government.
She also advised the Agent to enhance integrity, professionalism and be accountable to those they are serving.
The CS added that it is not only a responsibility of property agent to know their clients but it is also their duty to support the government to fight quacks by doing background checks of their clients.
On her part Estate Agents Registration Board (EARB) chair Nelly Mbugua noted that the workshop was aimed at bringing together all stakeholders to look at the gains and the challenges of real estate and the way forward. She decried challenge of people masquerading as Estate Agents is on the rise with the increase in use of technology.
She said that there are about 40,000 unregistered quacks dealing in real estate agency business and if they were registered members then government would have collected revenue of Eighty five million shillings from them according to the economic survey done in 2017.