Estates agents registration to weed out fraudsters

Estate agents have supported the move by the government to register them a fresh saying it would bring sanity to the industry.

They say the move will weed out conmen from the sector and raise the standards in an industry that has remained largely unregulated.

Currently, anyone can apply at the Estates Agents Board regardless of their professional qualification.

Acting Cabinet Secretary for Lands and Housing Fred Matyangi said on Friday last week the ministry was drawing up guidelines to register estate agents afresh to bring sanity to the industry.

Regent group Senior Property Manager Njeri Njoroge says the government should define specific qualifications to be met including the right educational qualification.

“Right now all you need is a certificate of good conduct to show that you do not have a criminal history and if you convince the board you are an agent,” she said.

She said if the sector was regularized then clients will know they are dealing with genuine people adding that the market had been flooded by non-professionals.

Ms Njoroge also said the agents would be open to plans by the Kenya Revenue Authority to use them to collect rental income tax.

TAX

KRA has had trouble infiltrating the property market for taxes due to lack of sufficient data although the sector continues to boom attracting billions of investments.

The taxman says data from the Kenya National Spatial Data Infrastructure project under the Ministry of Lands has accumulated data that will help it crack into the revenues collected by landlords.

This year’s Financial Bill 2015 targets real estate properties as a major financier of the Sh2.1 trillion national budget through real estate agents to collect and remit a withholding tax of 12 per cent charged on rental income.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) plans to collect Sh3 billion by bringing on board 20,000 landlords in the 2015/16 financial year.