RICS Supports Quoting Prices of New Flats with Saleable Areas

Further recommends new regulations to be applied to second-hand properties

HONG KONG, March 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Hong Kong supports the government's proposal to regulate sales practice of new flats. RICS Hong Kong has submitted its recommendations to the administration earlier and welcomes the adoption of the relevant recommendations in the proposal.

Over the past few years, RICS Hong Kong has been stressing the need of using saleable area and supports the measure put forward by the proposal. RICS further recommends that this measure be applied to second hand residential property market as well, so that saleable area is the only prevailing standard. This fairer practice offers more accurate market information to homebuyers. RICS will discuss with government officials with regard to the new measures, hoping the new rule applies to second hand properties as early as possible.

RICS Hong Kong supports the government's measure to regulate marketing information of newly constructed homes, including announcing price lists and sales brochures 3 days ahead of launch of flats, stating the elevation above ground level of flats and the distance to roads clearly in sales brochures, and disclosing property transactions online within 24 hours of temporary contract. These stipulations allow consumers and citizens to have more accurate information. RICS believes accuracy and announcing time of sales information are equally important. Therefore, RICS advocates sufficient monitoring after enactment of the laws, to ensure the sales information are accurate and announced on time.

RICS Hong Kong is also in favour of the bill, which introduces criminal sanctions on misrepresentation and dissemination of false or misleading information. However, RICS hopes to have a clear definition of criminal liability and sanctions, including that of property developers, property agencies etc, avoiding sacrificing the businesses of related parties.

At the same time, RICS Hong Kong calls for a cooling-off period for both homebuyers and developers, but believes further consultation of the public and the industry is necessary so that both parties can agree on the amount of forfeiture of calling off the deal, or the ratio of the forfeiture to the transaction amount.

Mr. David Tse, Chair of RICS Housing Task Force, said, "The new measures can improve transparency of transaction details of newly launched flats and allow a unified definition to calculate the area of a unit, and this is an important step forward. Since purchasing homes are mostly the largest lifetime investment of the average households, we recommend that the use of saleable area for price calculation be extended to second hand housing market. By these consumers' interests can be better protected."

About RICS & RICS Asia

RICS is the world's leading qualification when it comes to professional standards in land, property and construction. In a world where more and more people, governments, banks and commercial organisations demand greater certainty of professional standards and ethics, attaining RICS status is the recognised mark of property professionalism.

Over 100,000 property professionals working in the major established and emerging economies of the world have already recognised the importance of securing RICS status by becoming members.

RICS is an independent professional body that, since 1868, has been committed to setting and upholding the highest standards of excellence and integrity -- providing impartial, authoritative advice on key issues affecting businesses and society. RICS is a regulator of both its individual members and firms enabling it to maintain the highest standards and providing the basis for unparalleled client confidence in the sector.

The RICS Asia supports a network of over 11,000 individual professionals across the Asia Pacific region with an objective to help develop the property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice and international experience. It promotes RICS and its members as the natural advisors on all property matters. It also ensures that services and career development opportunities are provided to members.

The RICS Asia region covers national associations and local groups locating in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The People's Republic of China and the SAR Hong Kong. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: www.ricsasia.org

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