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HOUSING

Real estate agent business gains recognition

Kawsar Khan
It was mid-day and Mahbubul Mujib was concentrating hard on an email he had just received. It was from a UK based chain store, expressing desires to set up an office in Bangladesh.
The mail was the latest of a series of emails, which have been exchanged between Mujib's company and an UK based company. They were trying to strike a deal between themselves to nominate an office space for the latter in Dhaka. Mujib, only 35 years of age, was just the right person for this job as he had an academic background on real estate services from the US.
Mujib, managing director of Century 21 Reality (pvt) Ltd, soon seemed pleased with the email.
'Tn response to the chain store's urgency to find office space in Gulshan, we provided information regarding a few apartments and now they have finally made their pick from one of those sites,” he said.
"We are now going to draw up the deeds to the final agreement,” he added.
Century is one of the few companies involved in providing housing related services such as residential and commercial space rental and sales, relocation of commercial and residential units, property management, negotiation for selling and buying of land and properties, among others.
The Century officials said they are involved in all the services of a real estate agent, but its primary focus is to hire and find residential and commercial space for foreigners, who are most vulnerable and find it difficult to make the necessary arrangements in a new country.
Century also provides furnished apartments to cater to the demands of the foreigners. There are over a hundred furnished apartments to
choose from in Gulshan and Baridhara, its officials said.
While Century is mainly dedicated to dealing with foreign clients there are thousands of other formal and informal establishments who are involved in the business. Although the idea is new in Bangladesh, the sector people believe that in near future it will be an inevitable part of the real estate business due to the complex nature of the real estate business.
Such services are not new or uncommon in developed countries. An association comprising realtor agencies, set up in the US in 1908, requires companies to be licensed by the government before commencing business.
“The sector will thrive in the country within a short period of time since the economic development and financial activities will become more segmented," hoped MGR Nasir, executive committee member of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB).
"I stepped into the real estate agent business in the year 1986. At that time, people were not too familiar with the trade and did not accept me and referred to me as a 'dalal'," said Hanif Sarker, managing director of Mediation, claiming to be the pioneer real estate agent company in the country.
“Often when a housing unit hangs a signboard inscribed with "To-Let', it is quite disturbing because people from all walks of life will want to communicate. To avoid such hassles, people prefer to work via agents," said Hanif.
The agents service fees for renting out property usually is about a month's rent and for disposing assets, it is about three to four percent of the sale price, in most cases.
"Majority of the times, we give one month's fair but the amount may reduce depending on the time
it took to find a suitable tenant," said Prodip Kumar Dev, manager of the Dhaka office of SA Group.
Describing why his company solicits real estate agent's services, he said, "Our main business is located in Chittagong and since we cannot go through the extra burdens of finding tenants for our commercial space in Dhaka, it is simpler when we pass the task to the more specialised and efficient real estate agents."
Prospective customers of land and property rely on agents because they do not have access to all the relevant information required to make informed decisions.
"In developed countries like the US, the land developers and real estate businessmen do not under-
take marketing activities, rather the services are exclusively done by the real estate agents," said MGRNasir.
Information regarding land is important to help customers make informed decisions, he said adding that in the developed nations, the formally recognised real estate agents are known as realtor and provide services relating to real estate brokerage.
The sector lacks formalisation and this will also mean that it lacks rules, regulations and code of ethics. Due to this absence, both the parties clients and realtors - get cheated, the sector people said.
Describing the malpractice, sector people said, "Since there are no formal laws, the prospective
land buyer sometimes avoids the mediator after the a bridge between the buyer and the seller has been established. Similarly, the mediators also practice unfair means with their clients at times”.
"Bangladesh does not have any such association and there is nobody to oversee the sector," said Nasir, adding that he has been trying to forrp a platform to bring alf the players under one umbrella.
"If we can form a platform for the sector we will also be able to press the government to formulate some terms and conditions pertaining to the sector to establish transparency," he said.
kawsar@thedailystar.net