30% of the Market is Unregulated

1 November 2017

Real estate professionals warn of the risk of money laundering in the sector

The millions of euros traded in real estate have attracted many operators, but not all of them are reliable. The accusation comes from the Portuguese Association of Realtors and Real Estate Agents (APEMIP), through Luís Lima, its president, who estimates that “30% of the market is not regulated with a view to money laundering.”

“APEMIP has received many denunciations that have been passed on to the authorities (Ministry of Economy). We are talking about operators who work in the real estate market without a specific license for real estate mediation and, in this sense, are not obliged to comply with all the constraints imposed on other mediators,” the official stated.

The sector is regulated by the Institute of Public, Real Estate and Construction Markets (IMPIC), but this, says Luís Lima, at present, cannot inspect all irregularities.

“The importance that the real estate sector has for the national economy forces us to take on more responsibility, to ask the Portuguese state for shared responsibility, as it has difficulty carrying out supervision. For us it is easier, we have more than 3000 associates all over the country,” the president of APEMIP emphasised.

Commission Brings Together Sector Heavy-Weights

Determined to put more pressure on the government in this matter, APEMIP signed a memorandum with some of the leading groups in the sector, including Remax, ERA, Century, Sotheby’s, Garvetur, and Cushman & Wakefield.

The committee will meet monthly to define strategies to protect the sector. For the moment, a code of conduct will be imposed on all those who already work or want to work in this market.

“The Ubers of the Mediation are Extremely Dangerous”

“We are concerned about the ease with which certain operators act in the market. We call the Ubers of mediation, and it is a phenomenon that we have been seeing continuously in the last year. They are extremely dangerous to consumers, especially when you know they have the most important economic decision in a person’s life – buying a home.”

The newly created strategic committee is calling for vigorous action in conjunction with the state: “The state monitors the issue of money laundering with the mediators who operate legally. And the others? Those whose work is clandestine? How can the Portuguese state justify to the European Union that 30% of the market is not controlled in this context?”, Luís Lima concludes.

Original Story: Expresso – Marisa Antunes

Photo: José Caria

Translation: Richard Turner