Many Eye-on-Spain members have puchased 'off-plan' property from
agents or developers in the boom period 4-5 years ago. With these
purchases were no doubt attached false promises of the guarantee of
selling on before completion, guaraneed rent, exortionate capital
growth figures etc etc in an effort to 'seal the deal.' So what happens
now - your completion time is due, you have completion costs to pay,
mortgages to arrange, snagging to undertake and the possibility that
your orginal agent does not want to know?
The most hard hitting fact is that agents on the Costa Del Sol
continue to falsify the potential of the market. Formal regulation of
estate agents could not come at a better time. However, are you aware
that even in the UK, estate agents are not legally bound by a
regulatory body? There are very reputable voluntary organisations such
as the NAEA and the Estate Agents Ombudsman which do a great job in
promoting ethical practices for estate agents and to shed the tarnished
negative images that seem to go hand in hand with declaring that one
might work in such profession.
The UK public has been furnished with all the tools necessary to sound
out 'rogue agents' both in the UK and in Spain. The BBC brought home
some shocking truths to the viewers through their 'Whistleblower'
television programme unveiling that even on home turf, agents can be
guilty of unethical conduct.
So what action is being taken? Which? Consumer magazine has
been heavily involved in pressuring the UK Parliament to make time to
pass the The Estate Agents Independent Redress Scheme Bill, and as such
it is believed that this will be addressed by the Queen in November of
this year. This of course will only apply to UK agents.
We are a small innovative real estate company, Merck Estates
(Australian owned) and we are currently spearheading a clean up
campaign within its sector and calling on the Government to not only
devote Parliamentary time to the regulation of estate agents within the
UK, but to extend such regulation to overseas agents providing services
to UK customers.
Founder of our company, Julian Merck has said: "We are wholly
supportive of Which? Consumer magazines call for Lord Dubs Private
Members Bill The Estate Agents (Independent Redress Scheme) Bill to
become law. At present, the estate agents sector in the UK is
unregulated and clients who are making one of the most important and
stressful purchases of their lives have little or no protection.
"The same is true in Spain, where professional accreditation is
wholly voluntary. We want to see Lord Dubs Bill not only passed by
Parliament, but also extended in its scope to cover overseas agents.
Only then can British consumers, who are carrying out transactions in
the property market, be fully protected.
"Estate agents in Marbella are being unfairly adjudged by the consumer,
in the wake of the Marbella Town Hall scandal, but there's no smoke
without fire and many agents need to put their house in
order before they can feel aggrieved by the consumer backlash."
News of the Marbella and Manilva arrests hit the UK consumers
very quickly and has obviously added further dark clouds in our area,
now, more than ever, people will be cautious about buying property on
the Costa Del Sol. Such public reaction is hardly suprising, fellow
agents only have themselves to blame if they are viewed in a dim light,
given the antics that they employ in relation to property sales.
Standards must be raised that must apply in the world of real
estate, both at home and in those countries where British consumers can
have their rights trampled upon by cowboy operators.
Degree level entry to the profession, trainee schemes
for graduates, continuous professional development and a regulatory
complaints procedure for buyers and sellers alike should all be
mandatory procedures for practicing in the real estate industry. Agents
may be based in Marbella, but 90% of clients are typically from the UK
or Ireland. As EU citizens, these consumers should receive the same
level of support and service as if they were purchasing a property in
their primary area of residence.
Our stand on the need to clean up the Costa del Sol real estate
scene comes from our founder's experience gained with one of the
largest estate agents in the area and his distaste for the lack of
service that clients received there. This led him to found Merck
Estates, with the offer of a very different approach to real estate,
based upon cherry-picking the property portfolio and ensuring that
owners are matched with the properties that they need, rather than the
ones that need to be sold. Renouned for having his own standards in
terms of location, specification and price per square meter for listing
property. If a property does not match up to the criteria, it will not
be included in the Merck Estates portfolio. For this reason, the 250
properties in our select portfolio are truly la crème de la crème.
We frequently finds ourselves having to rescue British and
Irish property owners who have been sold property off plan and then
left to fend for themselves. These clients had been advised by their
original agent that their property would be sold before completion, but
received no after-care support once they had bought their property. We
have taken on these owners, assisting them with the completion process
by undertaking their snagging, getting the right finance in place and
structuring a realistic rental scheme for them, so that they can earn
income by letting out their property.
We also take a dim view of the subsidising of "viewing visits"
and take no part in this sort of exercise which we believe typically
sees a prospective owner being bombarded with property details and
coerced into buying the wrong property for their needs, very often "off
plan". We will advise customers where to stay, arrange travel for them
and generally assist as much as possible, but the client pays their own
way and is under no obligation to view, buy or sign up for anything.
Similarly, we take a hard line with regards to not misleading
owners about the yield attainable from their property. We advise
clients that a net yield per annum will be 8-12% and not the 30%+ that
other agents tout around.
As Julian Merck concludes: "We need to clean up the Marbella
property scene and ensure British owners only deal with honest and
ethical agents. The Costa del Sol offers the most fabulous
infrastructure for a property owner and we are calling on the
Government to ensure that it is does not forget its duties to protect
the consumer rights of those Brits who wish to take advantage of this
when pursuing their dream, or life-changing experience."
Written by
Victoria Foxton
Merck Estate
www.merckestates.com