Heralding a new compliance era for the property industry, the Property Sector Codes in alignment with the 2003 BEE Act have now been gazetted by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The codes’ objectives include;
- Promotion of economic transformation in the sector to enable meaningful participation of black people including women, the youth and disabled; and
- Promotion of property development and investment in under-resourced areas, to enhance basic infrastructure, encourage investment and support micro and small enterprises.
The Property Sector Codes are still similar to Generic Codes with the exception that an eighth element of the scorecard; Economic Development has now been put into place.
The Economic Development element has two measurement categories, namely;
- Commitment by entities in the sector to invest at least 10% of their annual property development investments in under-resourced areas; and
- Commitment by entities in the sector when engaged in property disposal to dispose 35% of those to black-owned entities that are B-BBEE status levels 1 to 3.
The ministry believes that with these two measurements there exists commitment to stimulate investment in under-resourced areas, reduce service inequalities and create economic opportunities in such areas, as they have been overlooked in the past.
‘The second measurement will ensure that black-owned enterprises are given the opportunity to won and trade in assets,’ said Davies, the Minister of Trade and Industry.
The other key highlight of the Sector Code is the reduction of the threshold for exemption from compliance for estate agents to R2.5million of annual turnover as opposed to the R5million as is in the Generic Codes.
‘This reduction ensures that more estate agents especially the micro and smaller ones are given the opportunity to contribute towards transformation of the sector, and hopefully allows more entry by new agents into the sector, creating employment and help grow the economy,’ says Andile Tlhoaele, an empowerment expert.
The Sector Code has also provided for the progress monitoring of the implementation of these Codes as per the provision of the Codes of Good Practice.
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