Business

Tax dollars lost due to bogus agents

Praneeta Prakash Multimedia Journalist [email protected] | @PraneetaFBCNews

July 18, 2019 7:15 am

The Real Estate Association believes a substantial amount in tax dollars is lost at the hands of bogus agents.

President Anand Goundar says the unlicensed agents are a major challenge for the association.

He says these fake agents are selling properties on social media:

The Association believes social media sales agents need to be thoroughly monitored.

“There are many bogus agents who are not even attached with real estate agents so if the bogus agents are attached to any real estate agents it’s very simple. They can apply for a license and work legally. But my concern is a lot of tax dollars is leaked out when these agents or bogus agents work with vendors and do not report their income.”

Real Estate Licensing Board Chair Dr. Abdul Hassan says all real estate agents must be registered to operate legally.

“We have two categories, one is coming from overseas or foreigners who come to Fiji and try to do deals in the real estate sector without having a license locally, the other one is local one whose license may be expired and longer under the registrar of REALB that they are agents and they continue with the buying and selling of the properties.”

Currently, only eighty-four real estate agents are registered.

The Real Estate Licensing Board is also reviewing its thirteen-year-old act that needs to be rectified to suit the current real estate market.