CEPI - European Association of Real Estate Professions

With the merger between the European Council of Real Estate Professions (CEPI) and the Confédération européenne de l'Immobilier (CEI) – two leading professional umbrella organizations in Europe - 32 national organizations with over 300,000 affiliates in Europe will be fully represented in Brussels. Together, they become the “European Association of Real Estate Professions” (CEPI)

New players and products, emerging and diverse new services all complicate the task of real estate agents and managers, who are confronted by a multitude of different national and European laws. In this context, strong and consistent action from a unifying and fully representative organization at a European level is essential in clarifying, structuring and directing the development of real estate services.

Claudine Speltz, Acting President of the European Association of Real Estate Professions says : “As representatives of the real estate organizations in EU and EFTA countries, we want this merger to reflect an awareness of the important role our sector plays in the EU’s economy and in the lives of its citizens. Real estate professionals, both property agents and property managers have a key role and responsibility in making sure that the sector functions well. “A healthy real estate sector is important for jobs, growth, investment and mobility in Europe.

We need a coherent and well-informed approach to the sector at national and European level. With this aim, the merger between CEPI and CEI reflects our willingness to strengthen alliances between umbrella organizations in the real estate sector at large”, Jens-Ulrich Kiessling, President-elect of CEPI adds. “The new organization will work towards achieving a new ambitious and long-term approach to the real estate sector in the EU”.

Manuel Negrao, Vice-President of CEPI recalls that “policy measures differ widely in the real estate sector and different countries have chosen to implement regulation in forms appropriate for their own national market characteristics in ways which can be complex and may be guided by different reasoning. CEPI is calling for more coherent policy and regulation which should be evidenced by research to accurately evaluate the importance of real estate to the economy and which should take into account the consequences of regulation for the real estate sector and more specifically the housing markets at national and EU level”.

CEPI groups 32 national associations and represents over 300,000 property agents and property managers in the European Union and EFTA countries. Its objective is to voice the interests of the real estate sector and professions to the European Institutions, improve market knowledge, strengthen working relationships between professionals, and oversee their professional ethics, professional practices and quality of education.CEPI has a professional committee for property agents and a professional committee for property managers.

For further information about the contents of this release and also CEPI and its activities please contact Xavier Ortegat at CEPI aisbl avenue de Tervueren 36, bte 2, B-1040 Brussels, tel. +32 496 300 391, fax +32 2 735 99 88, http://www.cepi.eu xavier.ortegat@cepi.eu