‘Greed’ hiking up property prices
GREED is said to be the major factor in the increase of property prices as most salespeople or agents just want to make more money.
This was revealed by the Real Estate Association of Fiji president Anand Goundar during their submission to the parliamentary Standing Committee on Economic Affairs on the
Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit 2018 Annual Report yesterday.
“More so, the vendors that are selling the property, they will put up an outrageous price giving no chance whatsoever to an agent or salesperson to say no,” he said.
“I have trained my salespeople to reason things out with customers to say how you reached this price.
“If you are pricing a property for half a million dollars and the property at a real valuation price is $400,000, why are you asking for $100,000 (more).”
He said he had advised most of their agents in regards to this matter. “We do not sell any property where we get exclusive agency or we do not sell any property without evaluation,” he said.
He said about 30 to 40 per cent of his vendors did not want to work with him because of his refusal to their demands.
However, this was prevalent as some agents and salespeople had a fear of rejection of not taking that property at that price, he said.
“Recently we passed a resolution in our executive board meeting with our association that no one will be allowed to sell a property over and above the owner’s asking price.”
He said he had worked in the United States for 11 years in the real estate industry and he believed the market did not drive the property prices.
“I don’t think market drives property prices, Fiji is a small economy, there is only that much property available.
“Looking at the properties and looking at the pricing, it is usually done by the vendor and the agent wants to make more money,” he said.
He said there should be a regulation as it would leave the agents with no room to make more than 5 per cent.
The vendors are also required to do a valuation because the agents could not just go and pry the property and sell it a blind price, according to Mr Goundar.