CEBU-based Filipino Homes and the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC) will be working together to strengthen the campaign against foreign “colorum” practitioners.
Filipino Homes founder Anthony Gerard Leuterio said that alongside the influx of foreign real estate buyers is the rise of foreigners selling local properties to their fellow citizens in the country.
“This has to stop because they are not allowed to practice that here,” said Leuterio, adding that doing such would protect the real estate industry and the thousand jobs that depend on it.
Leuterio said they will be coordinating with Ofelia Binag, the chairperson for Real Estate Service of the PRC, to strengthen the anti-colorum campaign.
“If we won’t take immediate action on this, maybe in the next two years plenty of real estate agents will lose their jobs,” he warned. “And this is happening in Manila already.”
Besides the possible loss of livelihood, Filipinos will also be deprived of buying properties at the exact market price.
“We have to protect our industry, and also the local market,” Leuterio said.
Early this year, real estate services firm Leechiu Property Consultants said foreign buyers, particularly from mainland China, have now overtaken the overseas Filipino workers as top buyers of residential projects in the country.
Industry insiders observed that Chinese nationals are buying residential condominiums by bulk—for reselling, investments or other business purposes.
Under Section 23 on Foreign Reciprocity of the Real Estate Service Act (Resa) Law of 2009, “No foreign real estate service practitioner shall be admitted to the licensure examination or be given a certificate of registration or a professional identification card, or be entitled to any of the privileges under this Act unless the country of which he/she is a citizen specifically allows Filipino real estate service practitioners to practice within its territorial limits on the same basis as citizens of such foreign country.” (KOC)