INTERVIEW WITH MEMBERS OF THE GIPE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GIPE is one of the oldest professional real estate associations in Spain, having started its activity in the province of Malaga in 1985. The profession of Building Promotions Intermediation Manager was recognised at a national level in 1986 and also has its own section in the Tax Agency.

In 2022, a change was made in the board of directors with a clear focus on adapting to the new times. The new board not only renovated the headquarters, located in the central Palacio Salinas, in Malaga, but also decided to make GIPE the first bilingual association (Spanish-English) in Spain, says the vice president of the association Christofer Fogelberg. The focus of the board of directors is to create an environment of international collaboration, especially at a European level, and with our long experience we have specific skills to build a bridge between Spanish and international real estate agents. Christofer has been in the sector since 2001 and his agency specialises in international clients buying properties on the Costa del Sol, with a team that speaks 14 languages. That is why we have created specific courses important for the profession, such as money laundering prevention, data protection, etc. available in both Spanish and English. In this way we can include international agents who do not have the level of Spanish to complete other training courses.

Another significant change has been to modify the meaning of the acronym to “European Professional Property Managers”, as it better reflects our identity and the work we do at a European level with the CEPI federation, based in Brussels. Together with CEPI we are creating a new quality seal, MMCEPI, says secretary Daniel Holmquist. The MMCEPI seal will be the same throughout the EU and has the support of the European Commission. GIPE is the entity in charge of managing the seal in Spain.

On the other hand, the president of the association, Alfred van Krimpen, comments that the changes made in recent years have been received very positively among the older members. Van Krimpen has been in the real estate sector since the 1970s, not only as a real estate agent but also as a developer, and is one of the founding members of GIPE. It is a joy to see and meet new members at our monthly events and also those who make use of our coworking room in Malaga.

Partick Galiano, treasurer, comments that the association is active at a national level with board members in both Alicante and Barcelona. In fact, GIPE was one of the associations consulted about the mandatory registration for real estate agents in Catalonia in 2010.

Christofer continues; During the autumn/winter we have planned monthly talks at our headquarters which members can attend in person or connect via zoom. For those present we do a networking cocktail after the talks and they are becoming very popular. We have connected many agents and promoters over the last year, who would not have met and closed deals without connecting through GIPE

The first talk of the season will be held jointly with FOTOCASA on September 12 at 7:00 p.m. and is already highly anticipated. The topic will be: Key elements to position your ads on real estate portals.

Agents interested in becoming members can also attend the talks to learn about the facilities and services.

The headquarters are open between 10 am and 5 pm from Monday to Friday and the secretary Lorena receives the members along with the legal team. The services provided, apart from the events, are: GIPE certification courses, civil liability insurance included, legal support and access to the coworking room.

We are working together with other associations for a professionalization of the sector, both at the regional and national level; but especially at the European level, so that our members can display a seal of quality recognized in Europe. We are also part of a pilot project designing software for compliance with anti-money laundering. This project is supported by the European Commission and is a very interesting tool for real estate agents and is also equipped with AI, concludes Daniel Holmquist.