Taken from the newspaper Hoy
SANTO DOMINGO.-Giving voice to the helplessness, Mario Pérez explained that when he received the keys to his apartment he felt sure that, with a lot of work and with the savings of his life, he had made his dream come true, but the next day, October 6, when he went to what would be his home, doubt arose: the faucet did not respond to the command of the tap.
From then on he felt a guilt that grew with each passing day until it approached a state of panic when he learned of the results of an investigation by the Public Ministry that revealed that he had been one of many victims of scammers who had nested in Operation Nest to sell more than 300 apartments without legal documents.
Reducing the risk of other real estate market customers falling into the same trap, due to lack of information and lack of regulation, is a task that the country must complete, putting in place the necessary safeguards to prevent the scam from penetrating the mortgage market through its doors, so that it can only enter through an undetectable crack.
This could be helped by the announcement made by Vice President Raquel Peña that President Luis Abinader has created a commission to address the problem.
There are several padlocks that can be put on.
The main one is to provide the market with regulations that strengthen and increase the participation of regulated operations.
Hence the need to promote the approval of a law (which has been under development) so that the exercise of the status of real estate agent requires the acquisition of a license, which could be granted by the College of Real Estate Agents and Companies (pending creation) or by a public institution such as the Ministry of Housing.
Those who receive this license must have certified studies in the subject, which would help reduce risk by increasing confidence in regulated real estate agents, who would gain market share, while the unregulated market, where fraud more easily creeps in, would lose it.
The law could also create a fund (with contributions from the regulated private sector and managed by it) to implement a policy of guidance against fraud, establishing channels that customers can access to clear up doubts about offers received.
This would help prevent a lack of information from causing some to fall into the same error as Mario Pérez, and at the same time strengthen the regulated market, making their investment more profitable.
Likewise, incentives for the growing real estate trusts (there are already more than 300 in the country) could continue to be strengthened, since the high levels of transparency with which they operate are a bulwark against fraud.
Let us dream of the day when real estate trusts become the largest provider of housing because that will be the day when fraud will be a rare occurrence in the country's real estate market.
