More professionalism needed in the real estate sector

The real estate industry in Ghana has had its fair share of challenges, one being the seemingly mistrust between house-hunters and real estate agents.

A real estate broker has called for more professionalism amongst players in the real estate industry in order to gain public confidence.

According to Richard Gyawu-Mensah, Chief Estate Broker of Windzor Realty, real estate agents have lost the confidence of most of the general public because of bad experiences. He therefore tasked his colleagues in the industry to participate in more training events in order to improve their services to the general public.

This was a training session organized by property expert, Lamudi, at their office in Abelemkpe last week.

Gyawu-Mensah highlighted transparency as key to success in the real estate sector and tasked his fellow real estate agents to desist from behavior that could compromise them in the future.

Akash Boateng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Windzor Realty, also reiterated what Gyawu-Mensah earlier stated. According to him, customer service was also key to success in the industry.

“If you have exclusive property, you have to show more faith by checking up at the house belonging to the property owner to find out if anyone has come to enquire. Alternatively, bringing house-hunters over to the property would also stand you in good stead with the landlord,” he stated.

The Managing Director of Lamudi Ghana, Akua Nyame-Mensah, also touched on transparency as an issue that needed major attention. According to her, most of the complaints that came from users on Lamudi bordered on transparency, with a high number of complaints indicating that information pertaining to properties were insufficient.

“Lamudi is concerned with increased transparency and it is for this reason that we have rigorous checks associated with property listings. House-hunters are deeply concerned with location of properties, however, agents rarely provide it on Lamudi,” she noted.

The MD of Lamudi thus called on real estate agents to provide as many photos of their properties and advised them to provide location and prices of properties in order to increase the chances of getting leads.

The next Agent Education Series will take place on 11 December. The first part touched on maximizing sales through online channels while the next edition is expected to touch on communicating to get business.