The majority of estate agents in the UK may be in favour of
a merger between the National Association of Estate Agents and
the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, according to the
results of an internet survey of its members carried out by
property portal website Homes-On-Line.
However, the survey shows that NAEA members who responded to
the survey were overwhelmingly more in favour of any merger
than their counterparts at the RICS. Whilst 75.24 per cent of
respondents who were only members of the NAEA said they would
be in favour of a merger, the figure dropped to 70.29 per cent
of NAEA members who are also members of another professional
body. By comparison, only 14.62 per cent of respondents who
are RICS members said they would be in favour of a merger, and
this fell even lower to just 11.66 per cent of respondents who
were RICS members only.
The e-mail survey was carried out by Homes-On-Line among its
estate agent members during the week beginning March 18 and
members were given only five days in which to reply. Within
24 hours of the survey being issued just over 400 agents had
responded and by the end of the week this total had risen to
539.
The survey was designed so that only one vote per estate agent
was allowed. Guy Baker, Managing Director of Homes-On-Line,
said he had decided to carry out the survey after reading Media
reports of "secret discussions" between the NAEA and the RICS
to form some kind of liaison between the two bodies - possibly
even an amalgamation. He said: "One report I read suggested
that members of the NAEA need not be consulted about any proposed
liaison, so I thought I would e-mail a questionnaire directly
to our database of 10,000 estate agents to see how they felt
about such a move." And he admitted to being surprised at the
response to the survey.
Guy Baker said: "I was expecting we would receive between 100
and 150 replies in total - to receive more than 400 within 24
hours of the survey being released tells me there is a great
depth of feeling about any possible merger and that many of
the members want to make their voice heard about the matter.
"I am also surprised by the responses we had.
Whilst many estate agents may not be surprised that RICS members
are wary of merging with what they might regard as their 'poorer
relations', I would have expected the NAEA members to want to
retain their Association's independent identity. I would have
thought the results of this survey may spur officers of the
NAEA to consider carrying out a full referendum of their members
wishes."
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