MAIN IMAGE: Tony Clarke, Chairman of Rebosa
Editor
In 2023, Rebosa (the Real Estate Business Owners of South Africa) saw its membership grow by 21% year-on-year. “Our members collectively employ 17,601 agents, making us the most representative body in the residential real estate industry,” says Tony Clarke, outgoing Chairman of Rebosa; he believes that the increase is due to “Our commitment to the industry, which has resonated with property professionals across diverse backgrounds, prompting this surge in our membership numbers through organic growth”.
Working behind the scenes on big-ticket items
Speaking at Rebosa’s tenth AGM, Clarke explained that most of Rebosa’s impact is by its nature not in the public eye. In this article, we bring several critical contributions to light:
The National Property Practitioners Council “NPPC” of which Rebosa is a founding member, established an Advocacy and Legislation Committee (A&L), which is the industry vehicle to lobby government, shape the legislative landscape and submit commentary on all pieces of legislation that have a direct bearing on us.
In the year under review, Rebosa, together with the NPPC A&L Committee, provided in-depth commentary on various pieces of legislation, including but not limited to:
1. Draft Employment Equity Regulations 2023: The Minister of Employment and Labour published the proposed sectoral Employment Equity targets for comment. The proposed targets pave the way for numerical sectoral targets to be set by the Minister once it is promulgated.
Some of the targets set by the Minister were, by design, unattainable for the real estate sector in terms of the industry’s business models.
The bill also introduces several other regulatory changes, including that Employers with less than 50 employees will no longer have to report on their employment equity targets, irrespective of their turnover. This means the smaller agencies will not be affected by the numerical targets.
2. Rental Housing Act Draft Regulations: On 18 March 2022, the Minister of Human Settlements published draft regulations regarding the Rental Housing Act for public comment. These draft regulations aim to produce a national set of regulations which will apply to all residential landlord- and tenant relationships throughout the country.
The commentary submitted is contained in a 52-page document and was made in consultation with the rental industry and, if incorporated into the final regulations, would be beneficial to the landlord, tenant, property practitioner and industry as a whole.
3. Expropriation Bill: The Bill in its current form is a dilution of property rights, which will lead to a reduced appetite for local and foreign investment and have a detrimental effect on the economy, investor confidence and property value as investors will be reluctant to invest in a market where their property rights are uncertain and where government possesses the ability to take property from private individuals without providing any compensation for it. .
4. The Property Practitioners Act: Rebosa’s collective influence and lobbying, engagement and consultation with all stakeholders responsible for drafting the Act resulted in many concessions for the industry that have mitigated regulatory burdens and fostered a more conducive environment for business growth.
Major Provisions Include:
- Business owners can now operate without trust accounts, provided the guidelines are followed.
- Individuals can qualify as agents by writing and passing PDE 4 before commencing a career in real estate and then completing a practical course before practising as a Property Practitioner. This will be effective as soon as new qualification standards have been finalised.
- FFCs are issued for 3-year periods without displaying company or agent status, thus eliminating the red tape as no corrections and changes need to be made on the FFC during the period.
- Lower CPD Fees.
- Estate agents can no longer participate in arrangements where security estates charge accreditation fees and limit access.
5. Historical EAAB penalties: Many agents wishing to return to the industry are faced with heavy penalties which need to be paid before they can re-register and obtain a valid FFC because they did not deregister from the PPRA (previous EAAB) when they left the industry
A legal opinion obtained by Rebosa asserts that any such penalty imposed by the PPRA is simply unlawful. Rebosa has taken the matter further and is embarking on a legal process to bring this matter to its conclusion.
On 19 December 2022, the FIC made Amendments to Schedules 1, 2 and 3 to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FIC Act) to strengthen the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing for South Africa.
Rebosa has spent considerable time and resources updating FIC templates for industry use, holding informative and educational webinars and making our panel of experts and legal advisors available to our members experiencing problems.
Giving agents a voice at the PPRA
During the financial year, Rebosa received 3,105 PPRA queries from members. 2,880 Queries have been resolved, and 225 unresolved queries were carried over to March 2023. The unresolved queries related directly to registrations and confusion around the PP Act. In addition, Rebosa received 163 queries pertaining to agents being disqualified, all of which have been resolved.
Rebosa is afforded weekly meetings with the key PPRA personnel to settle these matters effectively.
Transformation
“While transformation is happening at all levels of the residential real estate industry organically, it is not at the rate and pace to have the requisite effect”, explains Clarke, “However, winning this challenge will require a coordinated effort from all of us. This, in turn, will lead to more significant economic growth and shared prosperity. We are proud to have 600+ black principals as members”.
To begin to address the challenges of transformation, Rebosa launched the RBL (Rebosa Business Leader) entrepreneurial business course designed to equip all prospective and current business owners with the necessary business skills to become operationally successful in the real estate industry.
Leading property practitioners developed the 8-month blended programme, which covers all the fundamentals required to operate and manage a successful real estate firm.
The first cohort of students successfully graduated from the programme, and the second cohort is now halfway through. By the end of the next financial year, 50 property practitioners will have been equipped with the skills to become successful business/franchise owners.
