Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor–News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

The As­so­ci­a­tion of Re­al Es­tate Agents (AREA) has re­spond­ed to the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al for a land­lord busi­ness sur­charge and a one-time reg­is­tra­tion fee an­nounced in the 2025/2026 Na­tion­al Bud­get.

AREA pres­i­dent Sal­ly Singh said the as­so­ci­a­tion sup­ports Gov­ern­ment’s ef­forts to mod­ernise prop­er­ty reg­is­tra­tion, im­prove da­ta trans­paren­cy, and strength­en over­sight with­in the re­al es­tate sec­tor.

How­ev­er, while wel­com­ing the ob­jec­tives be­hind the new mea­sures, the as­so­ci­a­tion warned that they could cre­ate fi­nan­cial chal­lenges for small­er or low­er-in­come land­lords who al­ready com­ply with tax oblig­a­tions and pro­vide much of the coun­try’s af­ford­able rental hous­ing.

The as­so­ci­a­tion has rec­om­mend­ed a tiered or in­come-sen­si­tive sys­tem for im­ple­men­ta­tion, say­ing such an ap­proach would pro­mote fair­ness and con­tin­ued com­pli­ance while help­ing to pre­vent a re­duc­tion in rental sup­ply or af­ford­abil­i­ty.

AREA al­so urged con­tin­ued con­sul­ta­tion be­tween Gov­ern­ment, in­dus­try stake­hold­ers, and con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tives to en­sure that the frame­work re­mains prac­ti­cal, trans­par­ent, and does not dis­cour­age prop­er­ty in­vest­ment.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the as­so­ci­a­tion re­it­er­at­ed its call for the procla­ma­tion of the Re­al Es­tate Act, 2020, which pro­vides for the li­cens­ing and reg­u­la­tion of re­al es­tate prac­ti­tion­ers. Prop­er li­cens­ing, it said, would help ad­vance the Gov­ern­ment’s tax com­pli­ance ob­jec­tives by im­prov­ing da­ta ac­cu­ra­cy, con­sumer pro­tec­tion, and pro­fes­sion­al stan­dards.

Singh said AREA re­mains com­mit­ted to work­ing with Gov­ern­ment to pro­mote pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion, sup­port com­pli­ance, and fos­ter di­a­logue be­tween land­lords and ten­ants to strength­en the lo­cal re­al es­tate mar­ket.