China strengthens management of real estate brokerage sector

BEIJING - China has issued a guideline on standardizing real estate brokerage services to protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties involved in related transactions.

Regulatory measures have been released in 10 fields, which include the registration of institutions and brokers, the determination of service charges and the protection of personal information, according to the guideline jointly issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Measures will be taken to strictly enforce the filing system of brokerage institutions, while fully carrying out real-name registration of brokers.

Brokerage service charges should be determined through negotiations by all parties involved in the transaction, taking into account factors such as service content, quality and market supply and demand, said the guideline.

It urged brokerage institutions to reasonably reduce the costs of housing sales and rental services and to refrain from exploiting a dominant market position to charge high prices for their services.

The guideline also forbade brokerage institutions and their employees to illegally collect, use, process and transmit or illegally trade, provide and disclose personal information.