Lindiwe Hendricks, who was speaking on Tuesday at an Association of Real Estate Licence Law Officials District Six conference, an international real estate conference in Sandton, said according to a 2004 real-estate survey only 11% of the industry was in black hands.

"The survey revealed that the industry comprises only 11% of black equity, of this 4,6% is African, 2,7% is coloured and 4,4% is Indian," the deputy minister said. Hendricks said she expected "this area of reform" to be addressed by the property sector charter.

The first draft of the property industry's charter, aimed at promoting black economic empowerment in the traditionally white South African property industry, has already been published.

The charter is expected to be completed by June this year.

Hendricks also said the trade and industry department was concerned about the low levels of competitiveness among the country's estate agents.

This was encouraged by, among other things, the low barriers to entry into the industry, she said.

The deputy minister said the number of registered estate agents had risen from about 30,000 to 55,000 since 2000 and that government was concerned that more than 80% of estate agents "do not last" more than two years in the industry.

She said this created an "opportunistic" business sector.

"I have no doubt that it is the first time home-buyer who is likely to fall victim to opportunistic business conduct," the deputy minister said.

Hendricks said her department's consumer-investigations division, the provincial consumer-affairs offices and the Estate Agency Affairs Board, which regulate the residential real-estate industry in SA, were also receiving a high volume of consumer complaints about estate agents.

Hendricks said about 30 to 40 complaints were lodged formally daily.