In Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s real estate sector has reached a key legislative milestone, after the national Senate gave first-reading approval to a long-awaited bill that would formalize and regulate real estate intermediation services across the country.
The Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies of the Dominican Republic (AEI), the nation’s leading industry body for real estate professionals, has hailed the approval as a transformative step forward for the local property market. Industry leaders say the new regulatory framework will address longstanding gaps in oversight, boosting transparency, formalizing legal standards, and building greater public confidence in real estate transactions.
Alberto Bogaert, president of AEI, extended public gratitude to the Dominican Senate for advancing the collaborative proposal. He emphasized that the core mission of the legislation is consumer protection: it will create clear safeguards for both international investors and domestic families investing in property, a demographic that makes up the large majority of participants in the local market.
Bogaert also noted that the bill moving forward is the product of years of coordinated work between AEI members and other sector stakeholders, built on broad consensus across the organized real estate community. The legislation reflects input from agents, brokerage firms, and consumer advocates to address unregulated practices that have put buyers and sellers at risk in the past.
Now that the bill has cleared its first reading hurdle, it proceeds to the remaining steps of the Dominican legislative process, including a mandatory second reading and review, before a vote on final approval can be held. AEI has reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to partnering with national legislative authorities, executive branch regulators, and cross-sector stakeholders to refine the bill into a balanced legal framework. The ultimate goal of the framework is to elevate industry-wide professionalism, enforce clear ethical standards for intermediaries, and establish stronger institutional oversight of the real estate brokerage sector, supporting long-term sustainable growth for Dominican real estate.