“What we need are clear rules, both for owners and for those who rent the property, and this will allow the rental market to develop,” Jorge Montalvo observed.
SANTO DOMINGO- Acoprovi, the Association of Housing Builders and Developers, has been preparing since last year to present to the National Congress a proposed law on real estate rentals and evictions that will be a modern tool to incentivize investment in rental properties.
The document would be added to the project recently submitted by the PRM deputy Alfredo Pacheco, who last week submitted a bill on rentals, which already has a commission to be studied in the lower house.
Jorge Montalvo, architect and president of Acoprovi, emphasizes that the draft of the document will be shared with all stakeholders and then submitted to the congressmen for their evaluation.
The representative of the entity said that the goal is for it to be a modern law that provides legal guarantees to all parties involved so that it can be a tool for development.
Montalvo was at the Hoy newspaper's economic breakfast, where he explained that renting is also a decent form of housing and develops the real estate market, since with the appropriate legal guarantees, low-cost and social housing can be obtained.
According to Montalvo, the proposals in the Acoprovi document state that investment in rental properties should be encouraged and that the processes for a landlord to terminate a rental agreement should not be lengthy, costly, or bureaucratic.
The bill currently before the Chamber of Deputies recommends that the Banco de Reservas be the governing body for tenants' deposits. However, Acoprovi's proposal is to extend this to all financial institutions in general.
“What we need are clear rules, both for property owners and for those who rent the property, and this will allow the rental market to develop,” he said.
He stated that there is a culture of acquiring homes by people who hope to live off this income in their old age, but there is no rental market because there are no legal guarantees.
President of the AEI
Alberto Bogaert, president of AEI, the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies, views the rental law bill submitted by Alfredo Pacheco as positive and says that it will bring confidence and legal modernization to Dominicans and foreigners.
“We understand that this bill, like the one regulating real estate services and the brokerage contract submitted by Representative Lourdes Aybar de Serulle, if approved, would successfully complete the cycle of advancement and modernization of the real estate and construction sector,” he explains.
He believes that both laws combined will boost real estate development in the Dominican Republic.
Regarding the rental law, it agrees with the proposal recently made by the National Observatory of the Construction Industry (ONIC), that the commission studying the project should convene the entities of the sector and listen to their observations.
“Upon reviewing the bill, we are pleased with the piece, but there are some very important points that also need to be addressed,” Bogaert concluded.
