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The following is the translation of the speech by the Secretary for Housing, Mr Dominic Wong, in moving a resolution to amend the Estate Agents (Licensing) Regulation laid on the table of the Legislative Council on October 21, 1998 at the Legislative Council meeting today(Wednesday):

Madam President,

The Estate Agents Ordinance, passed in May 1997, aims to improve the competence and professional conduct of estate agents, and to give greater protection to consumers involved in property transactions. The establishment of a licensing and regulatory system for the trade will be a milestone in the development of estate agency trade in Hong Kong.

To implement the licensing system, the Estate Agents (Licensing) Regulation was made by the Estate Agents Authority with the approval of the Secretary for Housing, and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on October 21. The Regulation sets out the licensing requirements and other miscellaneous matters on licensing procedures. A Sub-Committee of this Council was subsequently set up to examine the Regulation. I am grateful to the Honourable Andrew Cheng, the Chairman, and other members of the Sub-Committee for their advice and useful comments in scrutinising the Regulation. The amendments that I now move have already been discussed and agreed by the Sub-Committee, and they should help to make the licensing system to be introduced more equitable.

The amendments include one major change concerning the definition of "existing practitioners" which will now include those who are practising estate agency work at the time of making application and those who have done estate agency work for a period totalling at least three months within a period of 18 months before the implementation date, that is, January 1, 1999. The amendments are necessary, taking into account the exceptional adjustment and shrinkage of the estate agency trade owing to changing economic conditions. This is in line with the objective to minimise unnecessary disruption to the trade.

The other two amendments are minor. They relate to limiting the power of the Estate Agents Authority to extend the period within which a licensee has to comply with the licence conditions, and to defining the 12 month period within which an unsuccessful applicant cannot make a new application.

Madam President, I beg to move.

End/Wednesday, November 18, 1998

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