SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Real estate agency PropNex has unveiled a $30 million support package for its agents. This includes a contribution of $750,000 to the community, including “frontline heroes” and the needy who are impacted by Covid-19, as well as to Community Chest, it said in a press release.
“In view of the ‘circuit breaker’ announcement on April 3 by Prime Minister Lee [Hsien Loong], there will be further restrictions on the conduct of real estate business, and thus we are concerned for our salespersons’ cash flow situations,” says Ismail Gafoor, CEO of PropNex Realty.
He explains that the financial support rolled out is “aimed at easing [its salespersons’] financial commitments during this unprecedented period”.
The support plan includes a $25 million Advance Commission Scheme, which will apply to new launches and resale properties. Salespersons who conclude and exercise deals involving new launches before June 30 this year can apply for the early release of their commission, interest-free, capped at $10,000 per salesperson. Under normal circumstances, developers generally take three to six months to release the commission.
Agents who have concluded deals for resale transactions submitted before March 31 can apply for the early release of their commission, capped at $1,000 per transaction and limited to $10,000 for each salesperson.
PropNex team leaders are entitled to apply for an advance management fee based on an average of the last six months’ income and capped at 50%. This will be limited to $10,000 per leader. The fund set aside for this would be $1.2 million. In addition, there will be a $1.25 million team leaders’ advance pension fund, which will see the company releasing up to 40% of the fund, capped at $10,000 per leader.
There will also be $1.7 million set aside to subsidise various training fees for its agents.
Moreover, PropNex will be rolling out $100,000 rebates on business costs, which include a 25% discount for the rooms and fixed seats for May and June 2020. All training and meeting room bookings will be free for three months after restrictions are lifted, from May 4 till July 31.
Other efforts include requesting the Council of Estate Agencies (CEA) for an appeal of a total waiver of the real estate salespersons’ licensing and administrative fee of $283.50, as well as a request for the deferment of salespersons’ MediSave top-ups for 2020.
Gafoor adds that PropNex has already invested in IT infrastructure that will enable its salespersons to access real-time training. “We are fortunate that we have strengthened and enhanced our virtual office features and PropNex PA app to empower our salespersons to do presentations to clients, sign e-forms, post listings, co-broke on a huge internal agent network and submit cases online,” he says.
The firm has also curated a 28-day training schedule for its 8,500 salespersons via webinars to upscale their skills.
“We are continuing to stay connected via online platforms such as Zoom, webinars, live streaming, videos, and other means to keep our sales force abreast with market trends,” says Gafoor.
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