Registered estate agents lose business to bogus actors

REGISTERED estate agents are losing 60% of business to bogus estate agents who are also fleecing unsuspecting homeseekers of their hard-earned money, NewsDay Business can report.

Recently, the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe (EACZ) blacklisted 74 real estate companies operating in parts of the country for failure to register with the council and fleecing people of their money.

Many of the estate agents are not in possession of Compensation Fund Certificates, which are issued yearly by EACZ under the company’s name, and should include the Principal Registered Estate Agent (PREA)’s name.

The certificate is supposed to be displayed in the reception area of every real estate company.

Apart from bogus estate agents, the sector is battling with land barons who are selling land, which, in some cases does not exist, exposing people and businesses to risks.

EACZ immediate past president Alexander Millini told NewsDay Business on the sidelines of a Property Management and Investment Masterclass organised by Global Renaissance Investments (GRI) in Nyanga last week that unscrupulous estate agents were taking away their business.

“The impact is quite devastating. Registered estate agents are losing about 60% of the business that should be going to their doors,” he said.

“We have the issues of greed and dishonesty where innocent people are now losing their money. For example a property is sold to more than one person and rental money is being received for properties that do not exist.

“This is not just in the cities, bogus agents are all over. The public needs to be aware that estate agents need to be registered and adhere to some laws and regulations.”

In many cases, these fake estate agents are using both mainstream and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise and fleece innocent citizens of hard-earned cash.

“The Estate Agents Council and the current leadership is seized with this issue and some actions have been taken which I’m sure will increase activities that will be shared with the public to warn the public about it,” he said.

Millini said the council was also seized with the issue of land barons.

“The town council becomes distorted and now in disarray because now you also have a place where there are stands parcelled about but there is no infrastructure. You have houses built but no roads, no water, no sewer.

“What does this do? It looks like it is not even urban development. We are not having social amenities; we are not having our constitutional rights, for example water. The land barons do not care about such but we care.

“Because there is no connection between the old and the new structure that would pull down the value of the existing structures by as much as 50% simply because you share a boundary with that.”-newsday