佛山市房地產業協會探訪 Through the Guangdong Property Management Industry Institute, the 佛山市房地產業協會approached our division on early June requesting for our assistance to arrange a visit of buildings in Hong Kong. Its purpose was to exchange experience of managing strata-titled commercial building with our members. With the kind assistance of our Vice Chairman, Dick Kwok and Council Member, Catherine Wong, a team of more than 30 members of the 佛山市房地產業協會led by its 副會長楊建華先生and 副秘書長黃鳳英女士visited Lippo Centre in the afternoon of 9 July . The Lippo Centre Management Office arranged a warm reception followed with a site walk within the building for the visiting team. I would like to take this opportunity to thank for the effort of Dick and Catherine, and the kind arrangement of Savills Property Management Limited. The 佛山市房地產業協會also invited our Institute to visit 佛山市so that the two Institutes may have more opportunity to share experience in managing real estate. Regulation of Property Management Industry As members may recall I have written a short article in the March 2010 Issue of Surveyors Times and have briefed members of a proposed licensing regime to regulate property management companies and practitioners. The Consultant appointed by Home Affairs Department had already finalized a report whereby a paper had also been submitted by the Home Affairs Department to the Legislative Council Panel for Home Affairs for discussion in the Panel's meeting of 9 July. In order to arouse public interest in this area, we have prepared a press release and sent to media on 8 July, repeating what we had raised to Deloitte earlier in March. Those comments were summarized in the Chairman's Message of March Issue of Surveyors Times for members' information. In general, the Council supports to license property management companies including owners' corporations and NGOs. Whereas for licensing individual practitioners, we have reservation as we have noted several unresolved difficulties. It seems that the press release did not draw too much attention in the public but as a professional Institute supplying professional members practicing in this area, our Division will no doubt keep a close monitoring in this respect for any future development. If members are interested, the paper submitted by Home Affairs Department to the LegCo can be downloaded from the LegCo website although you may need some time to search through the Panel for Home Affairs meeting agenda.