Hong Kong Estate Agent's License
A licensing regime for the estate agency trade has come into effect since 1 January 1999. An individual or a company carrying on estate agency work in Hong Kong must hold a valid licence. It is an offence to practise estate agency work without a licence.
Source: Hong Kong Estate Agent’s Authority
To do real estate agency work in Hong Kong you must have an Estate Agent’s License. Fortunately, the process is simple but it does require some effort to study the material. While preparing for the exam I spoke to people who had passed and I was told it was easy and required little study. I took their advice, did some basic study and was rewarded with a fail and 3 month wait till the next exam. Moral of the story? Study.
Licensing is handled by the Estate Agents Authority (EAA) which also handles disciplinary action and ongoing training programs for licensed agents. (known as Continuing Professional Development CPD)
S or E license?
The EAA has two distinct categories of licensees and they are the “S” (Salesperson) license and the “E” (Estate Agent) license. The following table summarises the main differences between the two categories.
S-license | E-license | Co. License | |
---|---|---|---|
Exam Fee | $400 | $600 | n/a |
No. Questions | 40 MC | 60 MC | n/a |
Annual License Fee | $1,280 | $2,010 | $2,800 |
The important difference is that an S-license holder must be supervised by an E-license holder. If you hold an E-license, you can supervise salespeople and also start your own Agency as a sole-proprietor, partnership or limited company. If you do start your own agency, you must additionally apply for a Statement of Particulars of Business (SPOB) which includes a C-123456 style number.
The relative numbers of each class of licenses are shown below (data from Estate Agents Authority):
To start, get onto the EAA website and find out when the next exam takes place. Make sure you register by the deadline and get yourself to the EAA offices at Hopewell Centre to pick up the syllabus and the material you need to study.
update: Visit the Estate Agent Resource page to get started.