Only about 10.5% of the country's 40‚000 estate agents are black.
The one-learner-one-estate-agency programme is hoping to add 10‚000 or more black estate agents to the market within the next three years. But there are concerns that the market will struggle to sustain so many new entrants.
"The real estate sector currently comprises about 10‚000 estate agency enterprises and the idea is that if each of these companies take on one intern for a year‚ we could produce 10‚000 trained agents‚" EAAB Chief Executive Bryan Chaplog said.
He said the EAAB would organise funding for each intern and that they would be given stipends.
"People struggle to enter the estate agent sector because it is commission-and not salary-based. This means they have to have savings before entering the industry‚ in order to sustain a living until they sell their first property‚" he said.
The internship initiative was welcomed by various large estate agencies as the most significant move made by the EAAB in a decade to increase transformation.
"It is a noble move that we have to support. During the recession‚ many estate agents who were operating on the margin did not survive. The fact that this is a commission-based industry adds to the difficulty of getting in. So hopefully this initiative will be well-supported and funded in time so that people get a chance‚" Herschel Jawitz‚ Chief Executive of Jawitz Properties‚ said.
It costs about R10‚000 to train an estate agent in a year. The process involves a qualification course and board exam. A second exam would need to be taken for an agent to start their own licensed real estate business.
Jawitz was concerned that the market in South Africa may not be able to accommodate 10‚000 more agents in a three-year period.
"This programme will help empower people if the funding mechanism works. However‚ the main concern I have is that house sales volumes have dropped. We have a number of agents trying to find work and we will have to wait to see how the market could cope with such big influx of agents‚" he said.
The introduction of the internship programme is the first major initiative of the new board.
Former human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale‚ dissolved the former board in 2012 after the property sector faced various scandals.
These included the admission by estate agent Wendy Machanik that she had been plundering her company's trust fund and the acrimonious departure of then Chief Executive Nomonde Mapetla. The fact that ghost-bidding had taken place at Auction Alliance also tarnished the image of the industry
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