PETITION RE EXHORBITANT PPRA ADMIN FEES

Office G13

Co. Space Entrepreneur Village

Midrand

Gauteng

1685

21 January 2025

Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority

63 Wierda Road East (Corner Johan)

Wierda Valley

Sandton

Johannesburg

2196  

BY PETITION: thato.ramaili@theppra.org.za   RE: PETITION REGARDING UNAFFORDABLE ADMINISTRATIVE FEES CHARGED BY THE PROPERTY PRACTITIONERS REGULATORY AUTHORITY (PPRA).  

Dear Madam,  

INTRODUCTION OF SAPP TO PPRA:  

By way of introduction, the South African Property Practitioners (SAPP) is a real estate representative body whose constituencies are Black property practitioners and their business interests. The main strategic objective of SAPP, in addition to education, and advocacy, is transformation in the property sector, that more than three decades into the South African democratic dispensation remains untransformed.  

REASON FOR EXISTENCE - Raison d'être   The South African Property Practitioners was conceived out of the realization that, while there are several other representative bodies such as:  

·       South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP)

·       South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA)

·       Real Estate Business Owners of South Africa (REBOSA)

·       National Property Forum (NPF)

·       National Association of Managing Agents (NAMA)

·       South African Institute of Auctioneers (SAIA)

·       Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa (IEASA)

·       South African Business Broking Association (SABBA)

·       Vacation Ownership Association of South Africa (VOASA)            

All of the above representative bodies are member organizations of the National Property Practitioners Council (NPPC), save the Independent Agency Network of South Africa (IEANSA), South African Youth in Property Association (SAYIPA), and Property Practice Institute (PPI). The South African Property Practitioners is not yet a member of the NPPC.

A study into the strategic objectives of the above industry representative bodies shows that these bodies represent interests of various constituencies and none of them focuses solely on the interests of Black property practitioners and their business interests. To this end SAPP was formally established in 2024, to solely focus on the business interests of Black property practitioners and the challenges they face. Therefore, SAPP exists to ensure that transformation in the property sector is realized by offering pragmatic solutions based on insights and empirical evidence provided by industry experts who are in the cold face of the sector on a daily basis.

THE PETITION:

The South African Property Practitioners noted with a great concern that the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority recently introduced a raft of administrative fees such as R300.00 to have the business property practitioners (BPP) reserved name approved.

The R300.00 to have the agency firm’s name approved is not the only administration fee that PPRA introduced, there is an additional R640.00 administration fee on top of the R300.00 to register the firm with PPRA, thus the total administrative fees that a new firm will have to pay is R940.00 (I.e., R300+R640), just under a thousand rand and this is before the agency has even done a single property deal.

In addition to the R940 above, the principal of the new agency firm will be required to pay R3 105.00 and an administration fee of R640. To this end a total of R4 045,00 will be required to just register the firm with the PPRA (I.e., 300 + 640 + 3 105). In addition, each candidate property practitioner that joins the firm, will be required to each pay R2 198.00. Assuming that the agency would like to employ three (3) CPPs for example, then it means the regulatory start-up costs will amount to R12 559.00 [(I.e., R300 name reservation fee + R3 105 to add the principal property practitioner + R640 administration fee to link the principal to the new firm + R6 594.00 (R2 198 X 3 CPPs) + R1 920 (I.e., R640 X 3 CPPs) .

These fees are unaffordable especially for previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs) majority of whom are Black people. This is almost like PPRA is implementing anti-transformation to keep PDIs out of the real estate sector. This is because SAPP believes that these high fees create barriers to entry and go against the very transformation agenda that is PPRA’s now legislative mandate, and function in terms of Section 6(h) of the Property Practitioners Act, 22 of 2019 and Chapter 4 of the Act.

These fees can only favour the already priviledged white people and that goes against the very strategic objective of the regulator to transform the property sector in South Africa which is currently so untransformed.     

To this end, we as SAPP, representing 95 registered property practitoners, hereby requests that PPRA revisits its decision to impose the said administrative fees that we believe create barriers to entry and can only work in the favour of the white priviledged individuals. This is anti-transformation and can only perpetuate the current industry status quo in the real estate sector in South Africa.

SAPP requests feedback from PPRA within 7 business days of receiving this petition.

Yours faithfully, 

SAPP Management

Luyanda Hboshe, South African Property Practitioners (SAPP)    Contact the author of the petition