Widespread usage of property technology makes trade associations more relevant

With the rise of the property technology, industry associations are even more important, said Mr Zaqy Mohamad. Minister of State for National Development, Mr Zaqy, made these comments on property technology at the Singapore Real Estate Conference on Aug 1.

Mr Zaqy said that as property technology offers new ways to conduct businesses, industry associations are well placed to help identify and seize opportunities.

“In the real estate industry, industry associations are particularly important as the property transaction process comprises many distinct stakeholders, from property agents, to developers, to lawyers, bankers and Government agencies – each one of them plays a very different role. We need the industry associations to play a coordinating role to bring different players together to agree and adopt industry-wide solutions. It is more important than before that we look at some of these developments, understand these trends, get feedback from the industry, and work together to see – not just from a regulation perspective – how to make this work, to make it better for all in the industry.”

Industry associations can help in the setting and promoting of industry-wide standards needed for end-to-end digitalisation of property transactions, said the Minister.

“Under the Digitalised Property Transactions Workgroup, industry associations have helped to develop standard contract templates for rental of residential properties, and are currently doing the same for private residential properties. This will benefit the industry in future: property agents will be able to facilitate transactions with greater efficiency and accuracy, as digital standard contracts can be automatically verified and electronically transferred from clients, banks and lawyers. These are ways we can use technology to make life easier for everyone.

“However, in order for the industry to reap these benefits, industry-wide adoption of these standard contracts will be required. Industry associations will then be key to realising this. Firstly, they will play an important role in getting buy-in from all their members to use these standard contracts. Secondly, as these standard contracts are adopted across industry, it is likely that consumers and agents will have feedback too. Therefore, industry associations will play a crucial role in aggregating this and recommending appropriate changes to the standard contracts so they can remain relevant.”

The Minister emphasised that industry associations are also important in aggregating resources to help small- and medium-sized agencies adopt property technologies alongside bigger players.  He pointed out that property technology adoption requires scale to justify investments, and that industry associations can provide property technology solutions, which smaller agencies will find hard to implement themselves and adopt on their own.

“I am glad that industry associations are currently doing this to help the smaller agencies level up against the backdrop of the entire industry. For example, agents can conduct checks to combat money laundering and terrorism financing on-the-go via IEA’s mobile app. Through SoReal, SEAA’s ‘RealAgent’ app enables agents to e-schedule property viewings and generate reports with real-time transaction data. SISV’s all-in-one CloseBuy app provides agents with regional marketplace coverage.

“With these tools, small- and medium-sized agencies can level up and keep pace with the transformation that’s happening across the industry. Now for the industry associations as well, if you need greater access to Government data to automate some of this time-consuming work such as due diligence checks, industry associations can also work with us, with CEA to get these data released, and we will do our best to facilitate some of these works, to make it more productive and efficient for the industry to perform these transactions.”

“Property technology indeed offers new ways to conduct businesses, and property agents must upgrade to keep up or die”, said Mr Paul Ho, chief mortgage officer of iCompareLoan.

He noted that many property agencies struggle to keep up with all the regulatory changes in the industry, as well as the changing financial calculations for acquiring a property. He urged property agents to master the basics in property financing, refinancing, taxation and CPF.

Mr Ho said that iCompareLoan.com runs a full 2 – 3 days course on how property agents can produce such reports for their customers. He added that the trademarked course teaches Property Agents how to generate complicated Financial calculations using –  Home Loan Report (TM) – in 3 mins flat. This helps Property agents to close deals faster and serve customers more professionally.

https://www.icompareloan.com/resources/icompareloancom-helps-agents-stay-ahead-game/

The Home Loan Report tool is a Singapore’s first one-of-a-kind analysis platform that provides latest updates of detailed loan packages and helps property agents, financial advisors and mortgage brokers to analyse home loan packages for their clients and give unbiased home loan / commercial loan analysis for their property buyers and home owners.

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