The Chinese are a people with a strong attachment to land. To acquire one's own property is the ideal of most people. In Hong Kong, a densely populated city with a scarcity of land, the price of land is especially high. It is far from easy to have a place of one's own. Quite a number of people spend their lives working hard just to purchase their own property. To call the acquisition of property is the decision of a lifetime is no exaggeration.
As flats in Hong Kong are expensive and the majority of purchasers, being inexperienced in property transactions, may suffer losses if they do not exercise care. Besides, most sales and purchases of flats in Hong Kong are carried out through estate agents. The implementation of the Estate Agents Ordinance has propelled the trade towards professionalism and consumers have naturally raised their expectations of them, whether on the level of specialized knowledge or of professional ethics. In other words, consumers have become more dependent on agents in the course of property transactions. With the introduction of the Ordinance, the mode of operation of the estate agency business has changed substantially and practitioners are going through a period of adapting and learning in order to perform their functions more effectively.
Since the implementation of the Estate Agents Ordinance, the Estate Agents Authority has spared no efforts in carrying out promotion and education. In addition to inculcating upon practitioners the importance of the correct business attitude and a good practical knowledge, the Authority also tries to convey to the public a proper consumer's sense so that all parties may recognize their rights and duties. The Authority has published articles and Q & A columns in major newspapers to explain the new regulations. Through case analysis, it has sought to introduce to the public, by real life examples, problems which may be encountered by consumers and practitioners alike. As their titles suggested, the purpose of these articles was to alert both agents and clients to possible pitfalls in property transactions.
This collection comprises new cases and published cases rewritten for the present volume. The collection is titled The Freshman, with the intent that in the new mode of property transactions, the property owner, the purchaser, the tenant and even the estate agent are all freshman and therefore should regard the problems detailed in the cases as lessons to be learnt and kept constantly in mind.
I would also like to thank Mr Tang Man Leung here for adorning the pages of this volume with his illustrations.
| September 2000 |
Grace M Y Chow
Chief Executive Officer
Estate Agents Authority |
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