Estate agent federation leaves developers' lobby

The Federation of Estate Agents is no longer affiliated to the Malta Developers’ Association, saying it wanted to have its own voice.

Kevin Buttigieg of ReMax, who took over as FEA president a few months ago, said he had always been against the affiliation agreement signed in June 2015.

“Our clients sometimes buy properties from developers, so if there is a problem, there would be an obvious conflict of interest,” he said.

At a hurriedly-called meeting a few days ago, the federation council decided to end its affiliation with the association though Mr Buttigieg stressed this did not mean the two entities would not work together in future.

“Of course, we need to work hand-in-hand with developers but we do not need to be under their wing,” he said.

Mr Buttigieg flatly denied that the decision to end the affiliation was anything to do with the federation being left out of the recently set up Property Malta Foundation.

Nevertheless, he had strong opinions on it, saying the federation had not been consulted on the creation of the new entity – aimed at encouraging foreign property buyers to Malta – and that none of its eight members were from the real estate agency sector.

The...