Hong Kong estate agents’ watchdog to vet online adverts more closely after sharp rise in complaints
Authority chairman also criticises scuffles among agents at sales venues amid unstable economic environment
The estate agents’ watchdog will strengthen the vetting of online property advertisements, after complaints about transactions received in the first six months of the year saw a dramatic 84 per cent rise from the same period last year.
The Estate Agents Authority said such a significant increase could be attributed to intense competition within the trade in an unstable economic environment.
There have been recent scuffles among agents at sales venues, which were described by authority chairman William Leung Wing-cheung as “extremely disappointing”.
“We cannot tolerate such behaviour. It damages the reputation of the sector and brings no benefit to the agents and the developments,” Leung said.
In the first six months of this year, the authority received 248 complaints about property transactions, a sharp increase from the 135 cases reported in the same period last year.
That came despite a drop in the number of transactions so far this year. There have been around 26,000 transactions – 39 per cent fewer than in the same period last year.
Complaints about non-compliant advertisements recorded the biggest jump in the first half – from four to 31 cases.
Ruby Hon Yuen-ping, chief executive officer of the authority, said examples of non-compliant advertisements included the posting of ads by agents without the consent of owners or incorrect details about flat sizes.
“As 70 per cent of these ads are from the internet, we will enhance the inspection of online ads in the second half of this year,” Hon said.
Leung said the rapid increase in the number of complaints could be caused partly by the poorer economic environment, which brought “enormous pressure” to some practitioners.
Willy Liu Wai-keung, chief executive of Ricacorp Properties, agreed that the transaction downturn could lead to “more aggressive” behaviour by agents. He said the company had been regularly reminding staff to stay vigilant on professional ethics.
