The first-of-its-kind Real Estate Bill will be completed in two months and will be tabled in the National Assembly subsequently, paving the way for the regulation of the local real estate industry.
Consultations are continuing among real estate agents, interested stakeholders, and the government on the draft bill that was circulated over the past few weeks.
“Consultations will continue and hopefully within the next two months, we should be able to complete this important piece of legislation to take to the National Assembly,” Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, said during his weekly programme ‘Issues in the News’, Tuesday evening.
The comprehensive piece of legislation is integral to Guyana, as it will regulate the local industry for the first time, since the real estate sector has been identified as one of the areas where a regulatory framework is needed.
“A lot of money passes through here and Guyana’s AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism) fiscal structure has been flagged for non-regulation of this important sector,” he pointed out.
While the bill provides for the sector to be as self-regulatory as possible, it incorporates a structure that brings together the government, the private sector, and real estate operators.
“It’s a very comprehensive bill that will deal with qualifications, registration of real estate agents, disciplining of real estate agents, and their ethical rules and principles by which they will be bound,” Minister Nandlall added.
The bill will also address the training of persons involved in the industry. Guyana’s AML/CFT framework is slated to undergo its fourth round of mutual evaluation in September 2023 by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and Financial Action Task Force (FTAF).
Enactment of the real estate bill is essential to Guyana’s fourth round of mutual evaluation by the CFATF and FTAF.
