An independent estate agency boss has backed calls for national industry qualifications.
The Government has announced a consultation on house-buying reforms that could introduce mandatory qualifications for estate, letting and managing agents.
It has been claimed this could shave four weeks off the process and save first-time buyers £710 on average.
Matt Nicol, managing director of Worcestershire-based Nicol & Co, said: “The principle of mandatory training and qualifications is something we back and Nicol & Co. is ahead of the curve on this. We have several qualified staff and an extensive training programme for others to work towards relevant industry qualifications.
“Service standards in the industry range far and wide. We feel the bar needs to be raised and that’s why we are already being proactive with our training.”
A survey of UK estate agents commissioned by GetAgent revealed that 65% support the introduction of mandatory qualifications.
Dan Westwood, sales director at Nicol & Co which has offices in Droitwich, Worcester and Malvern, added: “In the case of our 22 customer-facing sales and lettings members of staff, we currently have 13 with an industry qualification.
“Four have the more traditional Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) or Member of the National Association of Estate Agents (MNAEA) qualifications.
“The remaining nine have at least CePAP (Certificate in Property Advice and Practice) which is a more modern qualification which does seem to be taking over and lines up alongside similarly to industry qualifications like CeMap for mortgage advisors.
“After CePAP, you then have an option of gaining further specialism qualifications of which our members of staff are working towards on an individual basis.”
He said that the remaining nine staff who are not currently qualified are all signed up and working towards accreditation and are given personal development time within their working hours in order to work though the modules which leads to a test at the end.
Source: Estate Agent Today
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