New real estate portal to give agencies ‘a self-regulated level playing field’

A new online real estate platform, touted to be Malta’s largest, is due to be launched in the coming weeks, as part of an effort by leading stakeholders to “improve the sector’s professionalism” through a “self-regulated level playing field”.

President of the Malta Developers’ Association (MDA) Estate Agents Section (EAS) Michael Bonello, in comments to BusinessNow.mt, explains:

"This is just one part of several other objectives the EAS is working on to continually improve the level of professionalism in our sector, and it was felt that having it in our full control is a necessity."

The decision was therefore taken for the EAS to own and operate the platform itself.

Individual agencies will be maintaining their own listings on the platform directly, with every search users make returning aggregated results from the databases of various estate agencies forming part of the EAS.

“The main objective of the portal is to offer a more convenient service for clients searching for properties to purchase or lease, whilst giving estate agencies a more self-regulated and level playing field in which to promote their property listings.”

Mr Bonello adds that there are plans to introduce additional features later on, saying that these will continue to add value for the end user. “But it's early days to discuss these right now.”

On Tuesday, Mr Bonello took to LinkedIn to celebrate the signing of the “important” agreement that will lead to the “launch of Malta’s largest real estate portal in the coming weeks”.

“This is an exciting project of the Estate Agents Section of the MDA, made possible with the support of Property Malta Foundation and the Government of Malta,” the post reads.

Mr Bonello also thanked his colleagues on the EAS Council, Alan Darmanin of the Real Estate Agent Platform (REAP), Property Malta chairman Sandro Chetcuti (who also serves as the MDA’s honorary president following a highly seccuessful seven years at the helm of the organisation) and Parliamentary Secretary for Construction Chris Agius, for their “continued support of Malta's real estate industry”.

Asked what the Estate Agents Section within the MDA hopes to achieve through the launch of this portal, Mr Bonello expresses his belief that “having more control and self-regulation of important aspects of our trade can only improve things for us as well as our clients”.