CEBU CITY – 2024 is predicted to be the year when the real estate industry will experience the “biggest boom” in the history of the Philippines and with this, a group composed of licensed real estate salespersons is pushing for measures that will protect the market from scammers or colorum salespersons.
MEMBERS of the A Better Real Estate Philippines (ABREP) led by its president Anthony Leuterio (fourth from left) answer questions from the media before the start of the Accredited Real Estate Salespersons of the Philippines (ACRES) Visayas Summit on Thursday, May 11, at Radisson Blu in Cebu City. (Calvin D. Cordova)
Anthony Leuterio, president of the A Better Real Estate Philippines (ABREP), disclosed that the No. 1 target of scammers are Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) whose huge share of remittances are invested in real estate.
Leuterio said real property projects were put on hold for the past two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But since the economy has opened up, more projects are set to be launched to answer the demand and are expected to be up in the market by 2024.
"If there is a demand, there might be people who will take advantage," said Leuterio said in a press briefing on Thursday, May 11.
Leuterio said professionalizing real estate salespersons should be done ahead of the 2024 boom as he admitted that the problems on regulation have continuously persisted.
The goal of ABREP is to create 1,000 new brokers next year, he said.
“This is how serious we are in developing the industry,” Leuterio said.
Leuterio clarified that ABREP is not against unlicensed real estate persons.
“We are promoting professionalism. We are not against colorum, we are encouraging them to get their license,” said Leuterio.
At least 500 licensed accredited real estate salespersons from all over Visayas are here for the first Real Estate Service Leadership Summit which started on Thursday.
Dr. Eduardo Ong, chairman of the Philippine Federation of Real Estate Service Professionals, said there are about 120,000 unlicensed real estate salespersons in the country.
Ong, a dean and Professor at the Lyceum of Alabang, said unlicensed salespersons should be encouraged to be professionalized and allowed to undergo accreditation.
Data from the Accredited Real Estate Salespersons of the Philippines (ACRES) showed that the biggest buyer of real property in the Philippines are OFWs where sales are estimated to value at P1 trillion or about 30 to 40 percent of their remittances to the country.
Leuterio and Ong both believed that if unlicensed salespersons are professionalized, these prevent people being victimized by unlicensed salespersons.
“At least when there is an organization, there’s somebody that will police. Like in our company, when you have one misrepresentation, you will be terminated,” Leuterio said.
Real estate stakeholders called on the government to address the issues that would aid in expediting the professionalization of real estate salespersons.
The real estate industry is regulated by two government agencies, the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development and the Professional Regulations Commission.