Parliament must promulgate a Ghana Real Estate Licensing Act to regulate the real estate industry. Mr Korsi Jeff Gbodjor, a U.S.-based real estate consultant, in an interview with the Times yesterday, said such an Act would help eliminate fraud, dishonesty, unfair and improper competition in the industry. He said a body in the form of a commission should also be established to protect consumers by ensuring that licensed practitioners properly carried out their responsibilities to the clients in a competent manner. Mr Gbordjor said the commission could also give licenses to estate brokers, salespersons and approve courses and instructors for real estate education. He said it was unfortunate that at this stage of the country's development, there was no such law to regulate the industry. Mr Gbodjor said despite the progress Ghana had made in other sectors of the economy, land and property markets had remained informal and unorganised. He said the universities ought to develop a curriculum in real estate for the benefit of those who want to make real estate practice a career and a profession. Mr. Gbordjor said in order to also strengthen the industry, brokers and salespersons needed to organize themselves into professional associations and trade organizations with standards and code of ethics. He said some of the benefits which will accrue from streamlining activities of real estate will include information on supply and demand conditions available in the country, elimination of multiple sales and creation of artificial pricing of land and real estate property while making it easy for revenue collection on real estate property transactions. "Real Estate consultants handle people's property and money and it is regularised the world over to eliminate dishonesty and ensure competence in the industry "he said, suggesting that industry players who offered services to the public should be licensed. "There must be a minimum standard of education which qualifies one to become a real estate consultant, just like other professions in the country, "Real estate consultancy is a profession and anybody who wants to be in it must undergo training“, he said. Source: The Ghanaian Times