Estate and letting agents face mandatory licensing and qualification requirements under new government plans.
The government today confirmed its intention to introduce independent regulation of property agents.
Under the proposals, agents would need a licence to operate. They would also need to hold appropriate qualifications.
An independent regulator would oversee the sector and set professional standards.
Codes of practice could cover areas such as professional conduct and complaints handling.
Crucially, the regulator would have the power to withdraw licences from agents who fail to meet the required standards.
Agents could lose licence to operate
The announcement marks a significant step towards statutory regulation of the property agency sector.
The government’s home buying and selling reform roadmap already includes plans to consult on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents in 2027. Ministers intend to legislate when parliamentary time allows.
The government has also committed to publishing a non-statutory Code of Practice for property agents. It will consider putting compliance on a statutory footing in future.
However, today’s announcement goes further. It explicitly commits the government to introducing independent regulation of property agents.
It also confirms plans for a licensing regime.
The government said: “Property agents will be required to obtain a license to do the job, as well as appropriate qualifications to operate. If they fall foul of the required standards, the regulator would have the power to take their licenses away.”
Several important details remain unclear.
The government has yet to confirm the structure of the regulator or the qualifications agents will need. Licence costs and an implementation timetable have also not been announced.
Leasehold fees also targeted
The regulatory announcement forms part of a wider package of leasehold reforms.
Ministers plan to introduce powers allowing caps on some fees charged to leaseholders.
These could include charges for granting permission to keep a pet. Similar protections would apply to homeowners on privately managed estates.
The powers would also cover some administrative charges.
These can include fees for providing documents, such as building safety certificates. Charges for notifying landlords about a change of mortgage provider could also be covered.
A public consultation will consider which charges should be capped. It will also examine the appropriate limits.
The government said further details on the regulation of property agents will be announced in due course.
Comments (13)
30 years in this industry and theres been talk about it for years, lets hope they actualy go through with it this time, do it well and this will end all the dodgy estate agents or people thinking they know what an estate agent does and just opening up. this will seperate the wheat from the chaff, as long as its that staff need to become qualified after a certain time too and not just the owners of the business.
Do we think this will include compliance with the CMA regs re: reviews? Almost every agent I come across is currently cherry-picking.
And not before time. Let’s hope they also look at the referral fee process. More transparency and disclosure and agents should not be allowed to recommend law firms to buyers and sellers that they themselves would not use, just because they get a hefty bung.
How do you know if they themselves would use them though? We recomend a firm and every member of my staff has used them to buy or sell in the past 4 years except for me and thats only because i havnt moved for 23 years, they do give us a kick back, but thats a bonus, not the reason we reffer.
Many have been preparing for this for years and we await timescales and next steps with interest!
Excellent. Let’s regulate the public too.
About time. I’ve been in this industry for nearly 30 years and I’ve seen what happens when anyone can open an office and call themselves an agent. The good ones end up paying for the reputation the bad ones create.
I fully support licensing, but it has to be fair. A redress award or a goodwill gesture isn’t the same as an agent doing something wrong. Agents often settle small complaints just to keep a customer happy. That can’t be the thing that costs someone their livelihood.
Get the detail right and this is good news for everyone.
Have no problem with this as long as companies are given a realistic timescale and also doesn’t cost the earth.
Have always said this business needs regulating, will be the difference between who does things the right way. Would imagine some of the old school will bow out.
Nothing about regulating Private Landlords which in my view is more important.
This all sounds sensible to me.
We already have codes of practice and professional standards now. The problem is that they are fragmented and often rely on somebody actually complaining.
That is a weakness in the current system. Most members of the public do not know all the rules an estate agent is supposed to follow, so how would they know when one has been broken?
That appears to be one of the things the Government wants to change, including better consumer education so people understand what agents should be doing and where to go when things go wrong.
The big question for me is whether the new regulator will actively police these standards rather than simply wait for complaints.
Under the proposals agents would need a licence to operate, an independent regulator would set standards and ultimately an agent could lose their licence for failing to meet them.
Add mandatory qualifications and I think this is broadly positive.
My concern, as always, is cost.
Every new licence, qualification, training requirement, regulator fee and compliance process means more expense for small independent businesses. Large corporate groups can absorb that far more easily than a local firm with a handful of offices.
So yes, raise standards. Yes, require qualifications. Yes, remove persistent poor operators.
But Government also needs to make sure good small businesses are not buried under another layer of fees and administration simply to prove they are already doing the job properly.
Good professional agents should have very little to fear from proper regulation. It should raise standards and make it much harder for poor operators to damage the reputation of the whole industry.
Angela Rayner was apparently well worth her speaking fee.
Another fee/tax no doubt.
I’m all for qualifications and industry standards of course. But we’re not half being squeezed by this lot.
Agreed. Just another cost.
I also bet there will be a load of startups (and existing suppliers) who will jump on this to overcomplicate it and encourage agents to pay them to sort it all for you – like the AML checks.
Also, why do we still not have a simple central portal where clients can complete AML checks and we can all share that result – rather than themhaving to complete AML checks for the buying agent, selling agent, lenders, solicitors.. it’s ridiculous.
By the way, I have no problem with making sure agents meet certain qualification requirements and standards – but I know this won’t be straight forward and without cost. I’m already qualified and a TPO and PropertyMark member. Isn’t that enough?