Real estate brokerage in Spain works under a system that, for many in Argentina, would seem science fiction: there is no mandatory enrollment, or professional associations with monopolistic power, or state regulations that restrict competition, nor the absurd demand of a university degree to sell real estate, as in our country with the Emphysees of national laws 20.266 and 25.028.
This last regulatory nonsense of the university degree, incidentally, does not exist in any other country in the world. Thus, Argentina, although article 14 of the Constitution guarantees the right to work and trade freely, holds the unusual record of being the only nation where it is mandatory to waste years in a university to exercise a trade that, anywhere in the planet, is regulated by the dynamics of supply and demand, competition and the quality of the service, as in examples such as the US, New Zealand or, barely crossing the river, in Uruguay.
Following this delusional logic, we could well demand a university degree to sell refrigerators, a collegiate registration to market motorcycles and a postgraduate degree to serve a coffee with milk. Imagine the brilliant future that would wait for us: faculties specialized in the science of tightening an express button, regulations to determine how many cubic centimeters of foam are acceptable by law and a disciplinary court sanctioning those who dare to sell croissants without proper academic accreditation. Activities that anyone would carry out with a quota of common sense and real competition, as in the aforementioned case of Spain.
However, this was not always like that. Only in 2000, Spain deregulated the real estate brokerage industry through Royal Decree-Law 4/2000, of June 23, of urgent liberalization measures in the real estate sector. This regulation allowed, after a deep debate on the relationship between professionalism and centralized registration in institutions backed by the State, that any person, physical or legal, could devote themselves to real estate intermediation activities without the need to be in possession of a title or belong to any official school that monopolizes the certification of suitability.
If the purpose were to make the real estate market more efficient, accessible and economical, the evidence would demonstrate that these restrictions have no valid reason to exist. The reality is that the real estate regulations in Argentina were not designed to improve the industry, but to shield privileges and consolidate a legal monopoly, as has happened in so many other spheres, in favor of a few who found in the bureaucracy, interventionism and cliché of the “present state” a perfect ally to exclude competitors, create artificial entry barriers and ensure income without contributing any value added to the society.
While in Spain anyone with knowledge and experience can operate freely, in Argentina, real estate intermediation is reserved for those who comply with an extensive ritual of bureaucratic validations and costs, without any real guarantee of suitability. And yet, the Spanish market has not collapsed, it has not remained in the hands of “improvised” or has become an anarchic terrain of fraud. On the contrary, it works with efficiency standards several times higher than those of Argentina, without consumers being obliged to hire more expensive services for the existence of a club of intermediaries protected by law.
In Spain, the brokerage is regulated by the general rules of trade and civil law, and the quality of the service does not determine it by numbers behind the commercial actor’s last name, but the reputation, competition and the ability to be the most recognized in the industry to generate confidence. A professional evil does not survive in a free market. It is not necessary for a school to act as a guardian of the “quality”, imposing entry barriers and sanctioning those who operate without their blessing. In Argentina, on the other hand, the existence of these agencies not only did not raise the professionalization of the sector, but it served to consolidate a system of extraction of resources at the expense of the enrolled and in hand, not coincidentally, of the most inconsequential characters in the entire industry.
In fact, if the mandatory enrollment and schools were really useful, they would not need to be imposed by the coercive force of the State and backed by a regulation instituted in anti -democratic and violence moments, as in the case of Law 20.266, of the year 1973. It would be enough to allow professionals to freely choose where to certify, and the market would be responsible for validating what institutions really contribute value. However, no one is encouraged to test because we all know the result: in competition, these entities would be extinguished by irrelevant (in the most benevolent cases) or by corrupt and harmful (in the most extreme cases).
The Spanish model has shown that free competition and the elimination of arbitrary regulations generate more professionalization, more innovation and lower costs for consumers. Without the unnecessary regulatory force vest, innovative business models have emerged, such as real estate shoppers, digital intermediation platforms and flexible advice services, which in Argentina cannot prosper because the rules prevent creativity from exceeding regulation.
Argentina can move towards deregulation, release the sector and return to the market the power to choose, or can continue tied to obsolete corporate structures, protecting those who need the State to prevent free competition to continue justifying its existence. The decision is ours. And it can only materialize if the true referents of the industry, far from submitting to the whims of prominence of certain pseudo-political fascinated with the status quo, assume an active role in the basic questioning of these institutions that, in a monopolistic way, intended and intend to continue defining the direction of the real estate mediation service. As Edmund Burke said well: “For evil triumphs, you just need to do well do not do anything.”
CEO of Proptech Pint
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
