The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) recently published important announcements alerting the industry among others to fee increases, changes to exemptions and that registration for the professional designation examination (PDE) on 17 May is closing on 26 April.
One of the increases is the fee payable by non-executive directors to the EAAB to apply for exemption from the educational requirements related to the real estate industry. A mere two years ago the EAAB announced they were scrapping the requirement that all directors of limited companies trading as estate agents had to comply with various educational requirements including an internship of one year, obtaining NQF4 & NQF5 property qualifications as well as passing the PDE. As these strenuous educational and training requirements were discouraging both investors and entrepreneurs from entering the property industry, industry body Rebosa campaigned for this to change and considered a victory when the EAAB announced the exemption.
In 2016 non-executive directors had to pay a fee of R2 500 to the EAAB when applying for exemption. The new fee payable to the EAAB has increased to R3 000, effective from 1 April.
Also take note that estate agents aged 60 years and above may apply for exemption from NQF Level 4 and 5 real estate qualifications and the PDE for principals and non-principals. The EAAB stipulates that all applicants must be registered estate agents with a valid fidelity fund certificate who meets the policy criteria of the EAAB and must submit a compliant portfolio of evidence. They must also pay a fee of R2 130 to the EAAB for their application to the considered to continue to the interview phase.
Anther increase to take note of include the application fee for individual equivalency exemption which is now R1 670.
Lastly elible PDE candidates take note that enrolment and registration for the 17 May examination closes on 26 April and that no late enrolments and payments will be accepted by the EAAB. All registrations has to be done online on the MyEAAB portal on www.eaab.org.za. No manual registrations will be allowed.
Find the full announcements on the Rebosa website.
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