APEMIP SEMINAR - 22nd AUGUST, 2008 - AUDITÓRIO MUNICIPAL DE LAGOA

This Seminar APEMIP held in Lagoa could have been so much better...

Had it not suffered from what is a cultural thing among us: Late, Later, Latest:

So late were we that we had to list to the sponsor (UCI) speak to us and sell their products;

Other "latenesses", due to lack of participation by the audience, drove us to listen to long and boring discourses by both Sérgio Martins and Eduardo Macedo – Presidents,
respectively of the Direcção Regional Sul and of Direcção Nacional of APEMIP;

It was useful and interessantly to retain info in Portuguese (Where were the translators?!?) from the other speakers:

- António Figueiredo from the "Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado" on ending of the requirement for deeds and methods over in the Simplex;
- Alexandre Fernandes - Director Geral da ADENE - who also defined the desired impact of the Energy Certification of Buildings.

At long last, after a long journey, we were able to hear Eng.º Ponce de Leão - Presidente do InCI - who stated (And i quote) that "real estate mediation companies and their Association" had reached their maturity and one could foresee the time when self-regulation of this activity would be possible...

I confess this scares me as we lack 2 important factors in this equation:

1 - The lack of a coherent academic and training structure that can support such a "dream";

2 - The difficulty foreigners (who are nothing more than Europeans with full rights) find in unifying themselves in a common platform which can dialogue and be uniform and justified.

Without these 2 elements, made available to those professionals that have come to stay and help build Algarve's PIB (And also Portugal's), I cannot see good omens in these words spoken at the Seminar.

Urgent action is needed.

Your Colleague,

Daniel Foster da Silva