| dc.description.abstract | Kampala has witnessed an increase in the real estate agents and agency firms over the years and thus making the real estate agency market in Kampala more competitive than other businesses in the study area. Previous research has shown the effect of the above on land prices while little concern has been shown for the effect on customer satisfaction. This research employed a cross sectional survey design that comprised of both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. In addition, purposive sampling was employed which enabled the researcher concentrate on individuals with particular traits that were relevant to the particular areas of interest of the study.
A number of the factors that have led to the continued existence of unregulated real estate agents in Kampala were identified and these include high demand of real estate agency services, low operating costs, small amounts on initial capital required to start real estate agency as well as no formalized real estate agency organization or umbrella for real estate agents. However, according to the findings of the study, while it was discovered that the unregulated real estate agents do indeed satisfy some of the customer needs, it was also noted that there is indeed a negative effect of the unregulated real estate agency sector on customer satisfaction due to some current major unprofessional practices in Kampala such as setting unrealistic prices, non-contractual operations, fraud, frustrating undecided buyers, failure to pay brokers commission and so on. These practices resulted into various related challenges such as promotion of misleading information that have led to fluctuation of the property markets with speculative prices listed, loss of trust in estate agency industry services, destruction of the reputation of professional agents as well as dissatisfaction of consumers of real estate services. | en_US |
