Real estate specialists urge Rada not to vote for "raider" bill on realtors

Author

Olga Krotovska

The Association of Real Estate Specialists of Ukraine (ARESU) appealed to the Verkhovna Rada not to vote for the "raider" bill No. 3618 "On Real Estate Activities in Ukraine". The MPs scheduled the first reading on February 23.

"The professional community has repeatedly noted that passing this bill will have a negative impact on the quality of services provided, will impose on clients a compulsory recourse to realtors, which violates the constitutional rights of property owners and will create additional obstacles on the market," Yurii Pita, the ARESU President, stresses.

According to him, the proposed bill involves establishing a quasi-organization called the "Federation" that must include absolutely all real estate professionals. Considering that it is this agency that will decide who can work, Pita considers this a gross interference in the work of a competitive market.

The ARESU has calculated that if the "raider" bill is passed, real estate will rise in price by 2-3%. This is due to the rising cost of real estate services and the inability of consumers to refuse them.

Pita also pointed out the document "corruptogenicity". According to preliminary estimates, the annual profit of the market "observers" earned from the realtors can reach at least 100 million UAH.

The ARESU President states that, despite repeated appeals, the bill initiators did not even try to hear the opinion of the market participants. He also recalled the negative conclusions of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) on the document.

"It seems that the bill No. 3618 is being submitted for consideration right now only in order to surreptitiously rush it through and "raider" the market amid a possible military invasion," Pita notes.

He adds that the market needs a law, but specialists and representatives of real estate organizations should be involved in its drafting. According to him, the document should be based on a number of fundamental things, including:

each realtor should independently choose where to study and set prices for their services,
each specialist should be a business entity or officially employed person,
criteria for liability for poor quality services and deprivation of the right to engage in activities for systematic violations should be developed;
a mechanism for cooperation between the authorities and realtors should be created so that they have access to all the necessary information (access to databases, verification of documents, etc.).

Context. In June 2020, the MPs registered the bill No. 3618 in the Verkhovna Rada. This bill should unshadow the real estate industry. In addition, the bill will force citizens to buy or rent property only with the participation of realtors who will have to pass qualification exams.