THE FIRST YEAR OF THE CENTRAL FEDERATION OF FINNISH REAL ESTATE AGENCIES WAS FULL OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

A little more than a year ago, on 18 March 2008, a new chapter was written in the history of Finnish real estate brokerage industry as The Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies (KVKL) was founded. The Federation is a new umbrella organization for the real estate brokerage industry in Finland. In the annual general meeting of 23 April 2009 we were able to see that the first year has lead to many sorts of activities, results and collaboration. In spite of the challenges presented by the global financial crisis in the housing market the organization has been able to meet the expectations it has faced. Here is a short summary of the first year:

It should be considered quite an accomplishment in itself that the national organization has started off its operations during the uninvited global financial crisis.  

The decision and the result of creating the organization has been in many ways remarkable to the unionization of the industry. Consequently, the Federation has a membership of nearly 75 per cent of all real estate agents in Finland, which is even internationally a remarkable result.

One of the first priorities of the association was to conduct an occupational research together with the partners of the Federation for real estate agents to find out the contents of a real estate agent’s work. The research provides a solid foundation for further development of the profession and the education requirements.

Another immediate priority of the association was to develop a comprehensive website on www.kvkl.fi, which was accomplished without delay.

A framework agreement for statistic deliveries was made with Statistics Finland after thorough negotiations. On the basis of this agreement the members of the Federation were given the comprehensive statistic services at their disposal.

KVKL also started press collaboration with those national media agencies that expressed interest in mutually benefiting partnerships. A good example of this type of collaboration is the monthly publication on housing markets with Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.

The Hintanet collaboration agreement with the Ministry of the Environment was yet another achievement of 2008. All collaboration between real estate industry and the Ministry was centralized under the KVKL with the association now having authority to initiate and form collaboration agreements on behalf of the important players of the real estate industry.

A significant achievement was also developing the guide for good real estate brokerage practice to its final form. When finished, it was time to introduce the guide and to commit the wide range of realtors to the matter.

Also the sister publication for the guide, the good rent real estate brokerage practice, was developed and published.

An essential service for the general public is the consumer friendly www.hyvavalitystapa.fi website, which was created to support and familiarize the general public with the good real estate brokerage practice.

Towards the end of the year the Federation prepared to join the most remarkable international associations. Connections were formed by joining the European CEPI and EPAG and the global ICREA. KVKL also started collaboration with Nordic NEU.

For the first time a Housing Market VIP research was planned and executed with Finnish Construction Communications as a solution to take consumers into consideration. The results were published in January in the Housing Market top seminar where the Chairman of the Board of Federation, Mr Risto Kyhälä, was also nominated as the Real Estate Leader of the year. 

Another important activity of the association in 2008 was extensive working in various collaboration groups of the industry.

The trusteeship and stance of the Federation became more in-depth already in the beginning
when a Legal Committee was joined to the Federation. The committee consists of the nation’s best real estate lawyers and is familiar through The Finnish Association of Real Estate Agents.

In this context I would like to thank all the people that have worked with us to achieve the common goals. Together we have laid an excellent foundation to build on.

Jukka Malila
Managing Director, CEO
Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies