Exemption from certain licensing requirements

An individual applying for a salesperson’s licence or an estate agent’s licence (individual) is required to fulfill certain requirements among which are:

• He has completed an educational level of Form 5 of secondary education or its equivalent; and
• He has passed the relevant qualifying examination within the 12 months immediately before the date of his licence application.

Some individuals may be exempted from the above requirements.  To qualify for the exemption, an individual must:

• Have held a licence before; and
• Re-apply for licence within the relevant period (see below); and
• Re-apply for the same type of licence or have held an estate agent’s licence (individual) and re-apply for a salesperson’s licence.

The “relevant period” is within 24 months from the date on which the licence ceased to be valid or was suspended.  Below are some examples:

Example 1: The licence expired on 31 December 2011.  The relevant period started from 1 January 2012 and will end on 31 December 2013.

Example 2: The licence expired on 31 December 2011.  The licence was suspended from 1 November 2011 to 31 January 2012.  The relevant period started from 1 November 2011 and will end on 31 October 2013.

More details may be found in section 7(4E) under the Estate Agents (Licensing) Regulation.

Important note for applications made within the "relevant period"
Applicants (or their representatives) are advised to pay the licence fees by EPS at the EAA office if they intend to make an application in the last few days of the relevant period because if a cheque cannot be cashed (for applications made by post or by hand) or online payment is not successful (for applications made online) for whatever reason, then the application may not be considered made within the relevant period.