EAA held a press conference on 23 January 2007 to review the regulation and development of the estate agency trade in 2006 and introduce EAA's plans for 2007.

In 2006 EAA received 669 complaint cases, a drop of about 10% compared with 2005. However, EAA Chairman Mr Steven Poon said that last year's inquiry hearings revealed a rise in complexity and severity of the non-compliance cases. The number of licensees sanctioned went up during the year. In 2006 EAA held 139 inquiry hearings, nearly double the number of hearings (69) in 2005. In response to the heavy workload of the EAA Disciplinary Committee, EAA would bring more members into the committee so that inquiry hearing cases could be dealt with efficiently.

Mr Poon emphasised that EAA would strictly enforce Section 15 of the Estate Agents Practice (General Duties and Hong Kong Residential Properties) Regulation this year, urging estate agency employers and management staff to exercise effective control and ensure their frontline staff carry out their businesses in a law-abiding manner. Mr Poon added that in the early days EAA had allowed practitioners time to familiarise themselves with the statutory requirements. It is now time to strictly enforce the law and EAA will seriously look into whether the management of an estate agency company should be held liable for any misconduct of the company's frontline staff.

As for the issue of kickbacks, unlawful transfers of clientele and other so-called "bad habits" of the trade, Mr Poon said EAA took a very serious view of these matters. EAA will not tolerate such behaviour, said Mr Poon, as this is detrimental to public interest. EAA will undertake all possible measures to eliminate such "bad habits". EAA is currently consulting the Independent Commission Against Corruption on the formulation of practice guidelines on the subject.

Meanwhile, EAA kept in close contact with the Government, the Consumer Council and the Real Estate Developers Association last year with a view to "rationalising" the sale arrangements of first-hand properties. According to observations, estate agents gradually improved their practice and conduct in first-sale activities over the year.

Chief Executive Officer Ms Sandy Chan added that as the regulatory body of the estate agency trade, EAA always handled complaints against estate agents and other breaches of the law in a fair and just manner. Over the years, when assessing whether there was ample evidence in a case and whether the case was substantiated, the Authority has always been independent, prudent, fair and objective. EAA would not be partial to either the licensee or the complainant.

At an EAA press conference, Chairman Mr Steven Poon (centre) reviews EAA's work in 2006 and introduces its plan for 2007.