afpop, Portugal’s largest foreign residents’ Association, was invited to Westminster recently by the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), to be part of the launch meeting of its initiative aimed at protecting potential property buyers from the UK.
At a meeting in the House of Commons, which was sponsored by David Amess MP, the AIPP began the process of requesting the creation of an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), which would address consumer protection issues in the foreign property sales industry.
afpop CEO Michael Reeve explained: “I met the new Managing Director of AIPP, Peter Robinson, in Vilamoura last year, where we discussed the issues experienced by UK nationals when buying property abroad and also after the purchase is complete and they begin their new lives in a foreign country. Of course the AIPP has interests all around the world, but as Portugal is the third largest market in Europe, the experiences of property owners here are of significant interest to AIPP and I was delighted to have been invited to be a part of the meeting in Westminster.”
At the meeting the AIPP launched its white paper, with Peter Robinson explaining that the issue of protecting potential property buyers is so important to his organisation, that they have launched a free legal advice service from organisations within the AIPP group, to make sure that UK citizens have access to unbiased advice and support during the process. As they state in the opening paragraph of their white paper; “AIPP is taking the initiative to review the oversees property industry (from a UK buyer perspective), with the aim to identify areas that can be improved to enable a more transparent, safer and professional cross-border transaction and make appropriate conclusions and recommendations.
Peter Robinson says of afpop’s involvement in the process, “The AIPP, based in Westminster, London is perfectly situated both geographically, and by purpose, to gather the widest collective views on how British owners of a foreign property, as well as potential buyers, fare in today’s market place and ask MP’s to address the issues arising. Many owners divide their time between a UK and foreign property and afpop are ideally situated to work with the AIPP in gathering and communicating British owners’ interests to the APPG now being set-up. I am delighted to welcome afpop’s contribution to this new initiative. Having spoken to our Parliamentary advisor today, feedback from our event has been very positive and they anticipate the setting up of the APPG (with its minimum requirement of 20 MP’s) before Christmas.”
The process of recruiting sufficient MPs to create an APPG is now underway, with several already committed to the initiative, and the next steps in this will largely be determined by that process. Mr Reeve concluded, “Of course there are thousands of people in Portugal and many hundreds of thousands across the world, who will be affected by this and afpop Members account for a small percentage of the total, but the AIPP initiative will need information and commentary from many such groups in order to get a fuller picture of the issues involved. We are keen to play a part in helping to gather that information.”
For more information about the AIPP and its aims you can visit their website www.aipp.org.uk.
For more information about afpop and the Benefits of Membership you can visit www.afpop.com or e-mail them on info@afpop.com
