CEPI - European Association of Real Estate Professions

As every year, the Dutch association of estate agents (NVM) organised a study trip, this time in Belgium and to Brussels on 4 to 7 September last. An occasion to discover more concretely how a European federation, with a logo little known to them, responds to the aspirations of professionals and works on subjects which touch on their daily working life.

Thirty two professionals made the trip to Gent to meet there colleagues from the Confédération immobilière de Belgique and discover how the Flemish and Belgian markets, geographically so close to the Netherlands, differ from the Dutch market. A regulated market in Belgium, with a very high rate of owners who sell their property only rarely. Professions fully deregulated in the Netherlands since 2002, where social housing and the rental market are strongly developed and where the state continues to encourage access to ownership.

A visit to Brussels implies evidently a trip to the European Parliament and a discussion with representatives and administrators about the impact of European legislation on the property market and the property professions in the Netherlands. A meeting with CEPI allowed for a better understanding of how lobby work on dossiers as varied as the recognition of professional qualifications, money laundering, the energy performance of buildings, the management of resources, the regulation of the property professions touches on the daily working life of all.

Brussels was and still remains, in spite of itself, witness to an interesting architectural past, which the Dutch agents were able to discover on the occasion of a guided walk amongst the remains of the old town and at random in the neighbourhoods passed through.