DOHA: Non-Qataris caught acting as middlemen in real estate transactions or property rental business without valid licence are to be deported immediately once a law regulating real estate brokerage activities comes into force.
The aim of the draft is to completely remove illegal middlemen from the real estate business, whether purchase or sale or rental activities.
“The idea of introducing a new law and replacing the old one is to protect the rights of all parties concerned: The buyer, seller, tenant and the landlord,” said a real estate expert. Ahmed Al Oruqui told this newspaper after a seminar on the proposed law was held by the Ministry of Justice yesterday: “The draft is, though, at a very early stage”.
The Real Estate Registration Department of the justice ministry which records and clears all real estate purchase and sale deals held the symposium to seek the views of a cross-section of people on the draft, including real estate brokerage firms.
The firms have long been crying hoarse, complaining of large-scale intrusion by illegal middlemen into their domain. Most of these illegal operators are expatriates, market men claim.
The draft would, though, allow participation of non-Qataris in real estate brokerage companies to the extent of 49 percent of their capital. A highlight is that once the law is implemented, as a follow-up, brokerage firms could be allowed to represent owners in real estate transactions.
Brokerage firm owners would, though, be permitted to officially delegate their expatriate employees to act as middlemen in real estate transactions or rental business.
Needless to say that no firm or individual could act as real estate broker in a transaction or property rent deal without a valid license and without a full-fledged office.
Al Oruqui said that this would help clamp down on illegal middlemen who are currently operating in large numbers from their cars as their office. The draft would also cover property management business as well as real estate evaluation and the profession of official evaluators.
At the outset, senior justice ministry officials talked about why the seminar was being held. Mohamed Owaidha Al Kuwari, from the Minister’s office, said that feedback from the people concerned on the draft was necessary.
Ahmed Hamad Al Mehshadi, assistant director of real estate registration department of the ministry, said that the draft talks of setting up an office that would exclusively deal with applications for licensing of real estate brokerage firms. This office would also closely monitor the activities of these firms, he said.
THE PENINSULA
