MORE organizations in the real estate industry are supporting the call to amend the outdated Real Estate Service Act of 2009 (Resa) which they claimed has been holding back the progress of the country’s real estate industry.
In an online press conference Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, Anthony Gerard Leuterio, president of A Better Real Estate Philippines (ABREP), said the movement has already gained the strong support of some of the country’s largest real estate organizations following its bold campaign for the lawmakers to amend some provisions of the more than 10-year-old law.
“Resa is a pre-automation law that does not serve the purpose it was intended to. It was supposed to professionalize the industry, but instead, it’s stopping the industry from progressing,” said Leuterio.
ABREP is a movement that seeks to increase livelihood opportunities for Filipinos, promote the use of technology in real estate and bolster the sales force to address the country’s 6.5 million housing backlog.
Last month, it filed a class-action petition for declaratory relief before the Makati Regional Trial Court.
According to ABREP, the Chamber of Real Estate Builders Associations, the National Real Estate Association (NREA), the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines, the Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines, and the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association have their own specific positions on proposed amendments to Resa and have united in the push for legislative change.
Leuterio revealed that ABREP has already reached out to the Professional Regulation Commission regarding its proposed amendments and that they are awaiting further
feedback.
“We are not alone in our call to amend Resa. Real estate practitioners and developers have all united to make this a better law for Filipinos. At ABREP, we believe that with their guidance, the next version of Resa will do much more to serve the Filipino,” he said.
ABREP described some provisions of Resa Law to be “anti-poor, anti-Pinoy and anti-technology.”
The group said it wanted the law to offer equal opportunities to Filipinos, especially since real estate selling is a skill that can be learned by anyone regardless of the educational attainment.
Moreover, the group also criticized the law’s 1-is-to-20 ratio for real estate brokers to salespersons.
“We cannot sell so many real estate units if we do not have enough agents, which is restricted by this 1-is-to-20 rule. The law provides that only those who are graduates of Bachelor of Science in Real Estate Management can apply to become a licensed broker—and less than 100 people graduate from this course, a big number of which are not passing the board exam,” said NREA’s immediate past president Benny Cabrieto Jr. in earlier press conference.
Real estate developer RJ Ledesma also said Resa’s restrictions have aggravated the housing backlog by depriving developers of a provincial network of on-ground touchpoints.
“The largest amount of housing backlog is not found in the city. It is out there in the province, the rural areas. How do we identify where to put up those houses for people who need it? And how do we connect the developers to these places?” said Ledesma. “The developer has no means because he has no one to market there. We need more people to help us identify these underserved areas.”
Leuterio clarified that the creation of the movement was not meant to abolish the law but to improve it, especially since the times have changed.
“We want to have a better version of it,” he said, adding that the industry wants to create more successful Filipinos and narrow the country’s housing backlog, which experts have expected to balloon to 22 million by 2040. (KOC)