Chairperson of the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), Professor Kwandiwe Kondlo,
Members of the Board
Director-General Thabane Zulu
Chief Executive Officer of the EAAB, Bryan Chaplog
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

The story of the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) before it was transferred from the Department of Trade and Industry to Human Settlements in 2012 is well documented.

Through our intervention, the EAAB has been stabilised. I am happy to inform you that today, we have a fully functional Board with a full-time Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary.

The vision of the Department of Human Settlements is to ensure and carry out the constitutional mandate which guarantees houses for all. Everyone has a right to have access to adequate housing and the State must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within is available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.

Most importantly for us it is to drive the deracilisation of residential areas in South Africa. We achieve deracialisation through the provision of housing subisidies to the poorest of the poor; providing people in the GAP market with guarantees to buy homes in the areas of their choice through Banks; making sure that Banks do not unfairly discriminate against certain catergories of our citizenry through their landing practices; and regulating the entire housing and human settlements sector.

Ladies and gentlemen, our challenges do not end there. Commenting on the importance of home ownership and title deeds for people living in our townships who also are beneficiaries of government’s housing subsidy programme.

Business Day columnist Allister Sparks on 9 April 2014 made a startling observation about the country he calls home. I quote: “People live under various systems of informal ownership in which there is no formal certificate to show that the land legally belongs to them… They can’t even sell the property on a formal property market, which is why there are no estate agents in black townships.” unquote.

Unacceptable as it is to demonstrate such ignorance, Sparks should be forgiven for thinking like that 20 years into our democracy.  Ladies and gentlemen, the numbers of black estate agents in the country is minuscule. The record of the EAAB indicates that approximately 10 percent of the 40 000 estate agents currently registered are black.

During the Real Estate Summit which was held on the 4th and the 5th of October 2012, industry stakeholders committed to the adoption of the “One Learner One Estate Agency” Campaign as a measure to fast-track transformation within the real estate sector.

The implementation of this campaign by the EAAB constitutes an effective means to expedite the speedy transformation of the real estate sector so that it accords with the demographics of a democratic South Africa, with particular reference to the increased participation in the sector of women, the youth and physically disabled persons.

It is an unfortunate reality that the sector presently remains characterised by an acute under-representation of formerly disadvantaged persons and is, indeed, one which, despite twenty years of democracy, remains overwhelmingly historically skewed in favour of white participants.

This patent lack of meaningful transformation, notwithstanding the consistent endeavours of the EAAB to inculcate awareness amongst sector role players of the transformation imperative, can no longer be tolerated.

The effective implementation of an accelerated and meaningful transformation programme, such as the EAAB “One Learner One Estate Agency” Programme or initiative, to address the problem has, thus, become of paramount importance.

The real estate sector currently comprises approximately 10 000 estate agency enterprises and, through this campaign, we are targeting 10 000 new entrants to the sector over a period of three years, commencing now in April 2014 and terminating on 31 March 2017.

Conservatively this implies that just over 3 300 new entrants will be required to be recruited to the sector in each of these years, made up as to both graduates and school leavers. If however the entire industry takes up the transformation imperative, then 10 000 new entrants will be incorporated into the sector within the next 36 months.

The implementation of the “One Learner - One Estate Agency” programme seeks, in addition, successfully to:  

• create an enabling environment that will encourage new entrants to the sector;
• ensure the implementation and monitoring of appropriate systems and support structures to facilitate, consolidate and enhance the real estate knowledge, skills-base and competencies of the targeted new entrant groups;
• effectively transfer knowledge, skills and competencies within the real estate sector;
• significantly enhance both job creation and economic transformation within the real estate sector; and
• create and maintain a platform to support the Department of Human Settlements in achieving its goals and economic developmental objectives.

In terms of the Standard of Training of Estate Agents Regulations of 2008, all persons entering the estate agency profession must first serve as intern estate agents, acting under the supervision and control of a principal estate agent, for a continuous period of twelve months.

To accommodate these internship requirements the EAAB has introduced a mandatory one-year programme for intern estate agents specifically designed to facilitate and monitor the induction of intern estate agents into the estate agency profession.

The programme ensures that intern estate agents not only acquire meaningful practical estate agency experience during the twelve month internship period but that they are also exposed to an applied and relevant practical learning experience.

The programme ensures that intern estate agents are provided with the required structured learning environment that will assist them in acquiring the necessary practical workplace experience that they need competently to perform the functions and activities of a professional estate agent and, just as importantly, to ensure that they are not relegated to the peripheries of estate agency practice during the course of the internship period.

The “One Learner One Estate Agency” programme will, ideally, also serve as a major contributor in achieving the transformation goals and objectives that have already been articulated by the Property Sector Transformation Charter, gazetted in terms of section 9 of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act.

This will exponentially widen the scope of active participation by all sections of previously disadvantaged persons within the real estate sector in general and the immovable property market in particular.

A further beneficial consequence of the programme will undoubtedly be an increase in the level of understanding and appreciation of immovable property as an economic asset and a key contributor to social stability, economic development, well-being and growth.

As an important contributor to the success of the Programme, about 20 estate agency enterprises have already pledged their support to the initiative through the adoption of learners in this regard. We congratulate them for having a vision that will sustain and transform the sector.

I thank you.