One more year for agent licenses

The Sejm has amended a law on real-estate-agent licensing, which was expected to upgrade the requirements for obtaining a national license as a real-estate agent or administrator, from the beginning of 2007. Now, the requirement that all candidates possess a tertiary education has been postponed. It will come into force at the beginning of 2008 instead of the beginning of next year.

This decision was not greeted with enthusiasm from all Poland's real-estate market players. "Secondary education does not prepare anyone to independently perform either of these professions," said Aleksander Scheller, president of the Polish Real Estate Federation (PFRN). "Shifting this decision for another year will not change anything because at the end of 2007 we will have an identical situation to this year and hundreds of people will try to sit the national exam at the last minute."

Scheller also said that the real-estate sector desperately needs new people. As a result the PFRN has proposed introducing a lower level license for a real-estate agent to work under the supervision of a real-estate broker, as well as for a real-estate administrator who would be supervised by a real-estate manager.

"In this case, the lower-level licenses would be available to all those candidates with secondary education," added Scheller. "Thanks to this solution all eager candidates would be able to find employment opportunities and the market would not suffer from a lack of staff."