President's Report 2007/2008

Council members elected in 2006 remain in service until the coming AGM. The Public Relations Committee Chairlady, Ms. Cheryl Chin, resigned in 2007 due to her relocation to Australia. Her role has  been taken up by Helle Kwan who is also the Vice President of the Society.

As of to-day, we have a total of over 5000 practitioners in our Society including both company members of different categories as well as individual members.

Our council members meet regularly on the last Thursday of each month. We discuss the operational matters of our Society including activities to be organised for members, review current issues relating to real estate industry etc. In addition, ad hoc meetings may be held on a need basis.

We kept a regular dialogue with the CEO of EAA and her Directors. In the past year we did express our views to EAA on:-

-         anti-money laundering

-         unlawful transfer of clientele

-         compliance code

-         public abuse of making complaints to EAA with an intention to avoid payment of commission.

We also urged EAA to look into and / or make improvements on the following :-

-         qualifying examination –its frequency, scope, its

complexity, pass rate and fees

-         introduction of structured training courses for fresh

licensee / managers

-         the CEPA issue ( Our President and Vice President did participate in the Beijing trip in March organized by EAA to discuss this issue with the Chinese Officials.)

In the past 12 months, our council members were actively involved in a number of committees and different Government organizations such as

The Land Registry Custom Liaison Group, The Real Estate Services Training Council of Vocational Training Council and Occupational Safety Health Council by expressing our views and sharing our past experience in the industry.

To enlighten our members, our Society organised free-of-charge seminars every half year by inviting renowned professionals and guest speakers to comment on the global economy and the local real estate market.

Although we are not affiliated with the Joint Council of Estate Agents Associations, we are keeping a good relationship with each of them. wstaWe do share our views with them from time to time. We have also maintained a good relationship with our overseas Associate –NAR as well as some Real Estate Associations in China.