The establishment of a new occupation in real estate may open up new employment channels for grassroots practitioners such as real estate sales, brokers, and construction and decoration workers.
According to the "People's Republic of China Occupational Classification Ceremony (2022 Edition)" recently issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, "Home Inspector" has been officially included as the only new occupation in the real estate field.
Recently, Yicai learned that the Vocational Skills Appraisal Center of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the China Real Estate Association have jointly launched the compilation of the National Occupational Standards for Home Inspectors.
"The establishment of this new profession is at the right time." Wen Zhaoye, secretary general of the Industry-University-Research Branch of China Real Estate Association, said that as the main person in charge of the preparation of the national professional standards for home inspectors, he said in an exclusive interview with China Business News that a On the one hand, as houses return to residential properties, both developers and owners will pay more attention to the quality of houses, and the size of the home inspection market is expected to expand year by year.
At present, in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and other regions, the proportion of new home inspections may reach 60-70%, and the demand for home inspections tends to extend to the stock market. The construction and installation cost of developers has been greatly reduced, and the impact of the epidemic has been superimposed, and the quality of residential projects has received more attention.
However, he also believes that although the introduction of the home inspector profession can attract more jobs, the home inspection market has been "spontaneously growing" for many years, and some large cities already have a certain stock of practitioners. The short-term primary task is to regulate professional behavior and promote the industry. self-discipline.
In addition, because "home inspection" is a low-frequency behavior and the market competition is already fierce, it is expected that social capital will enter the industry prudently in the future, and "home inspection" will not develop into a profiteering industry.
After 18 years, why is it still difficult for the "home inspector" team to grow?
In fact, long before the professionalization of "home inspectors", the demand for home inspections has always existed.
However, it is different from the project quality acceptance or the completion acceptance of the project organized by the government. This "house inspection" means that the owner voluntarily hires a house inspector to make a professional appraisal of the quality of the house, and provide a quality inspection report based on the appraisal result.
According to Wen Zhaoye, the existing home inspection methods in my country can be roughly divided into four categories, namely "accompanying home inspection" by developers, home inspections by home buyers, free value-added services provided by decoration companies, and third-party home inspections.
Among them, since about 2004, my country's third-party home inspection market has developed rapidly and has now become the leading force in the home inspection market.
"After nearly 18 years of development, some professional third-party home inspection institutions with large scale and multi-level service personnel have formed in the market. Although these professional institutions already have a certain brand awareness, they still lack professional identity." Wen Zhaoye I told reporters that before, because the country did not have a home inspector profession and corresponding professional standards, it was difficult for the market to distinguish between "good money" and "bad money", and their professional levels were also uneven.
When Yicai searched 58.com and other recruitment apps, it found that companies in the real estate field that have the demand for "house inspectors" often do not have the word "house inspection" in the business scope displayed in their industrial and commercial information, but "house inspection".
Since March 2016, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will no longer apply for vocational training certificates for various industries, including housing inspection consultants, and hand them over to the industry.
Some practitioners told reporters that since then, the industry access threshold for home inspectors has been lowered, and home inspectors with high technical literacy who entered the industry in the early years may be submerged.
In addition, Wen Zhaoye said that in order to prove the authority and professionalism of institutions, some third-party institutions that provide home inspection services have posted a large number of "self-certified identity" association certificates or senior home inspectors issued by social institutions on portal websites or recruitment platforms. Certificates, but such certificates are often low in recognition and do not have the distinction of skills.
After the home inspection, the report issued has no legal effect, and it has also become a "professional bottleneck" for home inspectors.
Luo Xunwen, a partner lawyer of Beijing Yingke (Shenzhen) Law Firm, told Yicai that although the current "house inspection" is not explicitly permitted by law, it is not a behavior prohibited by law.
However, if there is a dispute over the quality of delivery, the report or document conclusion issued by a third-party home inspection agency may not be directly accepted by the court because it is unilaterally entrusted by the owner.
Liang Xue, a partner lawyer of Beijing Yunjia Law Firm and director of the Real Estate and Construction Engineering Professional Committee, also believes that it is not a necessary step for a house buyer to hire a "house inspector" or a third-party agency to inspect the house before closing the house. It is only an act of voluntary entrustment by the parties. At the same time, the home inspection report issued by a third-party home inspection agency does not have strong probative force in the judicial process.
"If it is difficult to identify the professional level of home inspectors and home inspection agencies in practice, the professionalism and accuracy of home inspection reports need to be considered."
"House inspection before handover" creates new demand
Although the remuneration for a single home inspection is not high, Wen Zhaoye noticed that in the years before the epidemic, the business orders of third-party home inspection agencies showed a rapid upward trend year by year.
In recent years, the number of people willing to engage in home inspection careers is still on the rise.
"In recent years, the business space of home inspection agencies has been expanding." Wen Zhaoye said that the key reason for this change is that the professionalism and neutrality of third-party home inspection agencies are more and more recognized and accepted by the market.
More developers are seeking third-party home inspections, not only because of the need to supervise the construction side, high owner satisfaction and the delivery rate, but also driven by the local government, the new house transaction model of "first inspection and then handover" has gradually deepened. related to people's hearts.
In August 2022, Shandong issued the "Notice on Comprehensively Implementing the "House Inspection and Receipt" System to Promote the Improvement of the Delivery Quality of Residential Projects". Before the house buyer receives the house, an "owner inspection" link has been added, that is, the house buyer signs the purchase of the house. After the contract and before signing the delivery note for house acceptance, the real estate development enterprise shall organize the house buyer to conduct quality inspection of the commercial housing purchased.
The owner's inspection is based on the principle of the owner's voluntariness, and others may be invited or entrusted to participate in the inspection.
In addition, since 2018, housing construction departments in Beijing, Fuzhou and other places have also issued similar notices, requiring buyers to inspect the construction quality of new houses before they are delivered for use.
Wen Zhaoye said that with the gradual increase in the supply of hardcover houses, at present, the demand for house inspections of hardcover houses has reached 70%.
Since the inspection items involved in the hardcover house are more complicated, it will bring more revenue increments for the home inspection agencies, and further force the home inspection agencies to develop towards specialization.
For example, taking the charging standard officially displayed by a relatively large-scale third-party home inspection agency in Beijing as an example, the unified charging standard for a rough house with a construction area of 91-120 square meters is 1,200 yuan, and the charging standard for a hardcover house with the same area is 1,500 yuan. Yuan.
"In addition, with the transformation of the high turnover model of real estate, the salary expectations of real estate practitioners have gradually returned to the normal area. In addition, the salary competitiveness of home inspectors has increased and the demand has increased. It is expected that after the standardization, standardization and professionalization of home inspectors, the occupational prosperity will be Further uplift." Wen Zhaoye said.
Is there an opportunity for real estate agency transformation?
Affected by the overall downturn in the real estate industry, in the past year, among the grassroots real estate industry groups such as real estate sales, brokerage, property, construction and decoration industry workers, there are not a few people who have been laid off or take the initiative to find another job.
For this group of people, Wen Zhaoye believes that the establishment of a new career as a home inspector will open up new employment space for them.
"Compared with others, they understand customer demands better and have the professional advantage of being a 'home inspector'."
Wang Xia, deputy secretary-general of the China Society of Real Estate Appraisers and Realtors, also told Yicai that there is a certain room for extension and development of the home inspection business in new home sales.
In recent years, with the deep integration of first-hand and second-hand sales, the value of real estate brokerage agencies and brokers in the field of new home sales has become increasingly prominent, which also brings natural advantages to brokers in conducting home inspection business. Real estate brokerage agencies and brokers can actively explore this. aspects of business.
Compared with new houses, real estate intermediaries have more "innate" advantages in the inspection of existing houses.
Wen Zhaoye believes that in the future, home inspectors will not only be an important force in the delivery of new homes.
As the scale of urban housing stock continues to expand, the inspection of housing conditions, decoration and renovation quality, etc. at the time of stock housing transactions will also be the service content of "home inspectors" in the future.
In addition to consulting, the most important business scope of a home inspector is inspection, including the inspection of the electrical system of the house, the structural surface of the house and other engineering conditions.
So, will these science and engineering expertise become an obstacle to the transformation of sales and management real estate practitioners?
In this regard, Wen Zhaoye said that professional home inspectors will be equipped with professional tools when inspecting houses.
As long as you pass standardized training and skills assessment, and follow a standardized inspection process, you can be competent.