The Attorney General and realtors during the engagement on Tuesday
Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Tuesday met with members of the Realtor Association of Guyana and the Guyana Association of Real Estate Professionals, where he presented a copy of the draft Real Estate Bill 2023 and highlighted its core objectives and main provisions.
The Attorney General explained that Guyana’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework is slated to undergo its fourth round of mutual evaluation in September 2023 by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and Financial Action Task Force (FTAF), and the real estate sector has been identified as one of the areas where a regulatory framework is needed.
“The Bill will provide the requisite accountable and transparent legal framework in which real estate agents will operate and by which their transactions will be governed. The economic explosion taking place in the country results in billions of dollars passing through this sector which currently is almost completely without any regulation. This has been identified as a grave risk and such a state of affairs simply cannot continue. The Bill will be taken to Cabinet for approval, then laid in the National Assembly for enactment as soon as is practicable,” Nandlall explained.
The Bill was drafted after consultation with the local real estate bodies and takes into consideration the industry’s best practices and international standards. While the Bill provides for the sector to be as self-regulatory as possible, it incorporates a structure that brings together the Government, the private sector, and real estate operators.
It addresses the licensing of realtors, qualifications required, ethical rules governing transactions, disciplinary procedures, and the establishment of a governing authority, and creates offences for non-compliance, among others.
Interested parties have two weeks to send their comments in writing, and the Attorney General will be open to meeting with the agents again after the comments are received.
Representative of the Guyana Association of Real Estate Professionals, Nicola Duggan commended the efforts of the Government for the initiative, which will allow for the transformation of the industry.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Government also embarked on regulating the real estate sector with the passage of the Condominium Bill in May 2022, which sets a structured and clear policy framework to guide the ownership and management of townhouses and condominiums.
Described as a “modern piece of legislation”, the Condominium Bill, Number 4 of 2022, makes provision for the horizontal and vertical subdivision of land and buildings into units for individual ownership, and the use and management of condominiums and matters connected to it.
