Queensland Real Estate Industry – Overview
The Honourable Paul Lucas, M.P. is proposing to entirely deregulate the property business in Queensland by removing the prescribed maximum fee agents can charge when selling residential property.
Presently, an agent is confined to charging a maximum fee of 5% on the very first $18,000 and 2.5% of the balance of the sale cost, or anything under this cap which is agreed upon in between the parties.
The effectiveness of this policy has been evidenced by a number of actual estate corporations which promote cut cost commissions. This is now to alter under the proposed new legislation by removing the cap, thereby enabling an agent to charge whatever is agreed.
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This can bring Queensland into line with other States.
Fears by sellers of greater commissions becoming charged for typical residential properties is ill founded, as this has not been the case in other states.
The benefit to sellers comes from the chance to supply a greater fee to an agent really should they’ve a property which is tough to sell, requirements additional behind the scenes function in preparing the property for sale, or wanting to supply a bonus for achieving a sale inside a specified time frame.
The above needless to say, is as much as the Seller.
Submissions towards the proposed adjustments have already been known as for from the Business by the Government plus a joint submission has been lodged by Carter Capner Law & ADL, a company which supplies much of the Market with the prescribed forms used by Agents.
This submission not only relates towards the removal of the commission cap, but also addresses the problems with the paperwork associated with a sale.
The verbosity of the warning statements, the repetitive nature of the documents and the sheer volume of and procedures to be followed when documents are getting signed, creates confusion for not only the Buyers and Sellers, but for the agencies and salespeople.
Commonly, Buyers and Sellers bypass the warning statements and only want to check the pertinent ingredients towards the contract such as cost, terms, building and pest inspection dates etc. before signing. They find everything else far too confusing.
Another very important aspect of reducing the paperwork to a reasonable level, is the cost associated with property conveyancing. Lawyers tell me that with simpler documentation, the legal costs associated with property transfers to buyers and sellers will be reduced as there will be a a lot more streamlined process to follow.
Furthermore, we haven’t discussed the cost towards the Business for all the additional time involved in document production, the environmental cost of paper that is consumed, or the cost and time involved in the complex training required to make sure agents get a very confusing process completely correct.
Hopefully common sense will prevail and sensible modifications will be made.
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