Real estate sector recovering slowly | Local Business

WITH the Government’s property tax collection set to commence this year, the Association of Real Estate Agents (AREA) believes it should never have been suspended until a suitable structure could be established.

In an interview, with Express Business last Saturday, AREA’s general manager Peter Corbie, said the state could have benefited from billions of dollars from the collection of taxes under the previous structure since 2009.

“Property tax is critical to the development and maintenance of our surrounding areas, infrastructure, and other regional corporation services such as sanitation, for the improvement of citizens’ quality of life. There should also be exemptions for senior citizens or retirees who live on fixed incomes and may be displaced due to their inability to afford the new expense,” he explained.

Corbie indicated that some form of protection is needed for these persons as well as those with disabilities and welcomes the opportunity to engage the State in developing a framework to facilitate this initiative.

During his budget presentation in September 2022, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the legal structure for the property tax is already in place, “but we intend to make some simple amendments before the end of the year to the Valuation of Land Act, to tighten and clarify the procedures for the gathering and processing of information and valuation of properties.”

Upon the population of the Valuation Rolls, the Board of Inland Revenue will commence assessment and collection of property tax, starting with residential properties, he added.

Asked about the status of the Real Estate Agents Bill, the general manager said it was passed in both Houses of Parliament with amendments in May 2020. However, it is yet to be proclaimed into law by the Office of the President.

He noted that AREA has been pursuing this legislative agenda as it strongly believes that the Bill is necessary to bring regularisation and structure to the sector.

Corbie indicated that it is the association’s understanding that significant work has to be done by the Registrar General to operationalise the Bill, with the different registers and committees that are to be formed. He said the association is in full support of these efforts.

“We believe that key stakeholder involvement will help the process along without compromising the integrity of the work being done by the Registrar General’s Office, and AREA has always been prepared to share its thirty-plus years of industry experience in their effort to build the necessary frameworks and policies to give life to the Bill.

“We also recognise that public education is necessary so that the wider population will have the opportunity to understand how the law will impact them and the measures that are going to be in place to protect citizens from any ‘bad actors’ who may be seeking to use the sector for disingenuous means,” he acknowledged.

Challenges

With the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic, Corbie said it was a challenging time for real estate professionals, as the real estate sector was not classified as an essential service. As a consequence, all practitioners were without a source of income during the time of the lockdowns.

“Since then, AREA has been advocating to reclassify the real estate sector as an essential service. This was due to the many reports during the pandemic of people being evicted from rental properties, and businesses being forced to close their doors, as they were in desperate need of the service provided by real estate agents,” he said.

The essential role of real estate agent, he said, is to help citizens secure a place of shelter and for businesses needing to relinquish or relocate to alternate accommodations, said Corbie.

Just like many other citizens who were left in the unfortunate predicament, the general manager stressed that real estate practitioners suffered the same effects of having to cope without their main source of income.

According to Corbie, there were many instances of adversity and resilience in dealing with the pressures of the pandemic and its wide-reaching impacts, and because of this, the Association remained on the frontline, advocating at every opportunity for the sector to be re-opened, not only to allow real estate agents to resume their practice but for the benefit of the wider public who were facing their challenges in both the residential and commercial sectors.

In terms of clients taking advantage of opportunities to buy properties from businesses that have had to close or liquidate assets during covid, Corbie said to say that persons were readily purchasing commercial spaces would not be accurate, as business owners appeared to be more tempered in their approach to re-entering the business sector in a physical space.

“Reports we received from brokers and sales associates, the commercial sector is slowly showing signs of recovery, and it is expected that the positive projections for economic growth in T&T, and a growing foreign investment portfolio, will have a direct impact on the sector, as more and more commercial spaces will be needed,” he replied.

Commenting on the new real estate portal launched by the Ministry of Public Administration, last month, Corbie said while this is not a new concept, AREA fully endorses any initiative that encourages the use of technology to further enhance the ease of doing business.

“It is viewed as a positive approach to register and manage these listed properties digitally for greater accuracy and efficiency in doing business with the State in respect of their property needs or those of potential investors. Similarly, AREA has also embarked on a project to build a portal that will allow interested parties to easily access real estate data,” he said. So what’s in store for AREA this year? Corbie outlined that one of the key focus is to provide training tools for real estate professionals.

“We plan on partnering closely with our affiliates to offer a range of relevant material as we see an expansion of the need for the services provided by the industry, and persons must be provided with the information and tools to fully function as a trained professional to not only provide a quality service but also to ensure the protection of the public when transacting business in real estate,” he concluded.

About AREA

Corbie said: “The Association of Real Estate Agents (AREA) was established in 1990 and has evolved into an organisation that is leading the real estate industry and its related fields to an international level of performance and professionalism.

“There is no legislation governing the buying and selling of real estate in Trinidad and Tobago. At present, the association is self-regulating, in that it sets its own rules as they apply to the industry and the circumstances that prevail in T&T. The association operates a very effective disciplinary committee that has had to deal with some very difficult decisions as it applies to infringements made of its rules and regulations by its membership.

“Unfortunately, AREA is not in a position to deal with matters that take place outside of the Association which does not involve its members, as it does not have the power to do so.”