Last night we told you about the emergency meeting of the Association of Real Estate Brokers of Belize. They're concerned about fast emerging changes in Central Bank regulations and Ministry of Natural Resource Policies - which have slowed down real estate transactions.
We asked President Hugo Moguel about how the slowdown in the Real Estate sector affects the overall economy:
Hugo Moguel, Pres., Assn. of Real Estate Broker of Bz
"You have to understand that real estate is our capital market, we don't have a stock market, this is how people exchange interest, and how people invest. It's a cleaner, easier way to bring investment into this country. I can tell you, tourism has been blooming, and real estate has been following along."
Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Because of the state of flux at the land's department, transition, putting in new systems and changes in leadership, real estate transactions have slowed down."
Hugo Moguel, Pres., Assn. of Real Estate Broker of Bz
"Several things are happening. One, foreign purchases have been very strong this year and it started from last year and the year before, we've been seeing it go up. On one side foreign investment have been very strong. On the other side, our local market has been weakening and we have been seeing the effects of the recession. This past year we've seen it really drop and how hard transactions have been taking place. While I have a lot of criticism, I don't think it's fair to put the square blame on the lands department. I can tell you financing, there's a lot of things that are going wrong right now that aren't helping the situation. The issue with stamp duties, the assessments, you'll notice putting in a transfer and it's not depending on what you paid but what they think its worth. How are you going to have certainty in an industry like this if you can't tell people what it will cost? That devalues property in Belize, that has been a huge problem. Second, dealing with surveys, getting approvals for these things. Real estate as a business, you sub divide a property, you develop the land, you sell it or you build homes, condos, all these things in order to close, transfer title, get the money into the country requires the legal side, the ownership and the proper structure to take place. That is totally dependent on the lands department. Waiting a year, a year and a half, two years or more to get a sub division approved, getting these things done, business doesn't take that long."
The Real Estate Brokers are coming up proposed legislate to regulate their industry.
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