The Guyana Government is now one step closer to regulating the local real estate industry, as the first draft legislation has been completed and is expected to be shared with stakeholders soon for feedback. This was revealed by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, during his weekly programme Issues In The News.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall SC
“The Real Estate Bill is now complete in draft, and we will continue to consult with stakeholders on the current draft, and then it will move to Cabinet, and then for onward transmission to the Parliament…I will be circulating it to stakeholders in a matter of days, and the consultative process will continue,” he disclosed.
Guyana Times understands that the Draft Real Estate Bill includes provisions to regulate the operation/functions of real estate agents; registration and qualification of real estate agents; and reporting mechanism for transactions conducted by real estate agents, among other things.
According to Nandlall, he has had several consultations with the stakeholders before and during the drafting of the Real Estate Bill. In fact, he noted that the draft bill was compiled using feedback and recommendations made during those consultations.
The Attorney General told Guyana Times, “Significantly, the bill was prepared based upon recommendations that came from the real estate agents [during] consultations which were held with them.” He added, “…consultation is an important part of our governance, and is an important part of our legislative agenda.”
Additionally, AG Nandlall noted that legislation in other jurisdictions in the Caribbean region as well as in North America were also examined in preparing Guyana’s real estate draft.
Moreover, the Attorney General explained that real estate is one of the sectors that Guyana has an obligation to regulate by way of legislation under the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) structure. This, he underscored, is important to the country’s AML/CFT standing.
“Real Estate legislation is an important requirement under our structure, because that is one of the areas that are unregulated. Guyana is scheduled to undergo a mutual assessment later this year, and one of the deficiencies identified in our AML/CFT structure is the absence of legislation governing real estate transactions,” he noted.
To this end, the Legal Affairs Minister said Government is hoping to have this Real Estate Bill enacted before Parliament goes into recess in August.
Real estate agents in Guyana have been pushing for regulations to govern the sector, especially since there has been an increase in the sale of real estate here with the passage of the new Condominium Bill last year and the heightened presence of international real estate companies operating in the country.
Back in November 2022, Nandlall had said real estate laws in Guyana are necessary now more than ever, given the country’s development trajectory.
“It is something that is long overdue, and the need for regulation to be brought to this industry has assumed even greater importance since we have become an oil and gas producer. Large companies have come here; huge transactions are taking place involving the sale and transfer of lands; you have joint venture arrangements being entered into to the tune of billions of dollars, and we have an unregulated real estate industry,” Nandlall had posited.
The Attorney General had further said, “I keep saying all the time (that) we have to update our laws, we have to revamp our legal system to ensure that it embraces the modern changes that are taking place, or else the legal system and the law will be left behind and commerce will run ahead. We can’t allow that to happen, we must do it in sync, and the society must move forward as a whole. No society can advance without the law as an institution being there to regulate the conduct of human affairs.”
The Guyana Government has 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 town houses 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.
