Consumers no longer need to check the Catalan College of Property Agents registry to know if the professional opposite them is enrolled and meets requirements to practise property mediation.
The College of Property Agents (Agentes de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria, API) in Catalonia launched API’s Digital Certificate which works similarly to the COVID one and provides evidence the professional in its possession is a duly enrolled API agent, adheres to a code of ethics, has surety and liability insurances, and even certifies academic specialities taken at API’s training centre.
Without a doubt, this means greater agility and transparency to the consumer-property agent relationship, an additional guarantee for the consumer who has practical and useful information available to decide if it is a suitable professional with the necessary training regarding the property operation at hand.
Vicenç Hernández Reche, Tecnotramit’s CEO and chairman for the Catalan Association of Property Agents (Asociación de Agentes Inmobiliarios de Catalunya, AIC), points out: ‘We have always defended the need to standardise the property business, specially after the property agent profession was liberalised in 2000 by the Government’. ‘We strongly believe any citizen has the right to access property with guarantees. As a matter of fact, we have reflected profusely about what mechanisms could be introduced into the market to help with property mediation transparency beyond the Catalan College of Property Agents registry, which is a success since 2010 but does still not provide enough guarantee for many citizens,’ the expert claims.
Why is API’s Digital Certificate reliable?
API’s Digital Certificate is a single, personal, and untransferable document that identifies any of the Catalan API’s agents, verifies enrolment in the Catalan College of Property Agents registry and all insurances they have subscribed to, in addition to basic information regarding professional skills since API’s trainings are included.
Completely reliable information since the certificate is created using blockchain technology. It is impossible to falsify or alter the contents since the system relies on various data validation tools. ‘We chose blockchain technology to offer consumers greater security, this way they can be certain the information shown by the certificate is 100% truthful and certified by our organisations, the Catalan Association of Property Agents and Barcelona’s Official College of Property Agents (Colegio Oficial de Agentes de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria de Barcelona, COAPI),’ as declared by Hernández Reche.