Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1111954
02.05.19 10 INTERVIEW Sensara Malta bills itself as a traditional "1%" broker. What does your business involve? I started Sensara Malta five years ago, and we have 20 people working for us now. We operate as intermediaries when it comes to buying, selling and renting property. Sensara Malta prides itself that it strictly abides by the law which stipu- lates that you can only demand a 1% com- mission fee from a client. Although there were efforts recently to push this up to 5%, we opposed this and will continue to operate according to the law. We provide free valuations and don't oblige anyone to sell through us when we value their property. It is their property, and we don't ask anyone to sign a contract after valuing it – we leave them free to decide what to do with it, because, after all, their property is their life's investment. We only get our 1% commission fee if they choose to sell it through us. We also are involved in the rent market. I personally don't like the idea of rent- ing, but we do it to satisfy our clients' re- quests. As is the law, we get half the rent commission fee from the tenant and half from the landlord. But we don't charge another commission fee for clients who renew their rent contract. How did you get into the property sector? I worked for many years with a construc- tion company, and I started right from the very basics when it comes to the sector. Eventually I entered the sales aspect of the sector and started to realise that people were being robbed in some cases by being charged a 5% commission fee. I also felt that charges in general were being pushed up at an exaggerated rate. So, as time went by, I decided I would start my own venture in this industry, so I established a professional business for freelance intermediaries, or sensara. Sensara Malta's slogan is "keep it affordable and in its realistic market value". In a market reality where property prices are on the rise – and where young people are facing it difficult to afford to buy or rent their first property – how do you manage to do this? From the outset, I decided that I didn't want to employ people who had worked with other estate agencies – I wanted staff who were new, with a view towards train- ing them to be proper sensara, not sales people. Many estate agencies employ what are basically salespersons – it's all about mak- ing money – but, with Sensara Malta, we care about safeguarding our clients' in- terests. And we do this mainly by giving correct valuations, not binding them to us, and safeguarding them from enter- ing into risky promise of sale agreements (konvenji). From our end, we do not exaggerate in our commission fee, but I cannot dictate to a property owner what price they will sell or rent their property. What makes Sensara Malta stand out against the competition? Sensara Malta is not there to compete. We exist to give our customers a different kind of service than that of other estate agents. I founded my company because I was hurt with the way people saw inter- mediaries – as people only out to make money – and they didn't realise how much we safeguard them. e general public viewed estate agents as money suckers. I don't want money suckers working for me, and I want our clients to turn to us because they know we will help them. I was out to build trust, and people now know Sensara Malta safe- guards them. And we are proud of our ca- reers as sensara. What do you think is behind this huge boom in the property market? e property market really opened up in 2013, when there was a change of gov- ernment. Starting from that year, there was a rise in people taking out buy-to-let loans from the banks, and paying back the loan from the income they received through renting out the property they bought using the loan. Developers weren't too happy with this, so they increased their prices, eventually leading to very high prices for properties. In turn, land owners started raising the prices for land, construction companies started charging more to build, those who supply things like aluminum fittings and tiles pushes their prices higher, and so on. It's a chain – everything started increas- ing. One has to acknowledge that developers had little choice but to also continue to in- crease their prices due to this. What are your most popular property types, and are some localities more popular than others? e type of property depends on peo- ple's budgets, of course. But, if, for in- stance, you take your typical new block of flats, the first to go would be the maison- ette, if there is one, and the penthouse. If a maisonette or penthouse comes back on the market, it's always a resale at a higher price. Of course, most people want to own a house, but often their budgets don't suf- fice, so they go for a maisonette or pent- house, and if they can't afford this, they opt for a flat. In terms of localities, we are involved in the sale of properties all over Malta. One area which is rapidly increasing in popularity is Gozo, however, and rent prices for flats are already increasing there, even before the tunnel permanent- ly linking the island to Malta has started being built. What is your stand on rent control? Do you think there should be some intervention to prevent prices from increasing beyond certain limits? I participated heavily in the drawing up of the government's White paper on rent, Property intermediaries Real estate intermediary Janice Azzopardi has been involved in the construction, development and real estate sector for 20 years, having started from the basics and worked her way up. Passionate about guiding her clients, charging them only a fair fee, and safeguarding their interests, she started her own brokerage firm, Sensara Malta, five years ago MASSIMO COSTA